THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  KINDERGARTEN 

REPORTS  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF 
NINETEEN  ON  THE  THEORY  AND 
PRACTICE  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN 


AUTHORIZED  BY  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
KINDERGARTEN  UNION 


BOSTON    NEW  YORK    CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,   1913,  BY  BOUGHTON  MIFFLIN   COMPANY 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


u&S 

TC,l 

CONTENTS 

PREFACE.  iii 

LUCY  WHEELOCK 
Chairman  Editing  Committee 

INTRODUCTION  vii 

ANNIE  LAWS 
Chairman  Committee  of  Nineteen 

FIRST  REPORT  1 

SUSAN  E.  BLOW 

SECOND  REPORT  231 

PATTY  SMITH  HILL 

THIRD  REPORT  295 

ELIZABETH  HARRISON 


1268112 


PREFACE 

THE  Committee  of  Nineteen  was  originally  formed 
in  response  to  a  demand  on  the  part  of  educators  and 
the  general  public  to  know  what  kindergarten  is  and 
what  the  modern  kindergarten  does. 

A  restatement  of  Froebelian  principles  seemed  to 
be  necessary  in  the  light  of  the  recent  contributions 
of  biology,  sociology,  and  modern  psychology  to  the 
science  of  education. 

During  the  thirty  years  in  which  the  kindergarten 
has  existed  in  this  country,  its  ideal  has  been  more 
clearly  defined  and  its  practice  modified  to  conform 
to  a  better  understanding  of  its  educational  instru- 
mentalities and  aims.  The  fundamental  principles  of 
the  system  are  accepted  by  all;  but  as  truth  permits 
many  angles  of  vision,  variations  in  methods  have 
arisen.  It  was  therefore  impossible  to  harmonize  all 
views  at  once  and  issue  a  unified  report. 

The  reports  now  submitted  are  the  result  of  much 
discussion  of  the  psychologic  foundations  of  the 
kindergarten  and  of  comparison  of  methods  in  the 
use  of  the  Froebelian  materials  and  other  means  of 
education.  They  present  from  three  viewpoints  the 
underlying  theories  which  control  the  practice  of  the 
kindergarten  of  to-day  and  illuminate  that  practice 
by  concrete  illustrations. 

The  Committee  sends  forth  this  volume  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  help  to  clarify  and  vivify  the  work  of  the 
kindergartner  and  to  extend  the  educational  influence 
of  the  great  apostle  of  childhood. 

LUCY  WHEELOCK, 
Chairman  of  Editing  Committee, 


INTRODUCTION 

BY 
ANNIE  LAWS 


INTRODUCTION 

AT  the  tenth  annual  meeting  of  the  International 
Kindergarten  Union,  held  at  Pittsburgh,  April  14-17, 
1903,  it  was  decided  to  appoint  a  Committee  of  Three, 
namely,  Miss  Susan  E.  Blow,  Mrs.  Alice  H.  Putnam, 
at  that  time  president  of  the  Union,  and  Miss  Lucy 
Wheelock,  these  three  to  select  a  Committee  of  Fifteen, 
including  themselves,  "to  formulate  contemporary 
kindergarten  thought"  with  a  view  to  more  clearly 
defining  the  points  of  agreement  and  points  of  differ- 
ence in  theory  and  practice  in  existing  kindergarten 
centers. 

The  original  Committee  consisted  of  Miss  Blow, 
chairman,  Mrs.  Maria  Kraus-Boelte,  Mrs.  Alice  H. 
Putnam,  Miss  Lucy  Wheelock,  Miss  Elizabeth  Harri- 
son, Miss  Caroline  T.  Haven,  Miss  Patty  S.  Hill, 
Miss  Caroline  M.  C.  Hart,  Miss  Laura  Fisher,  Mrs. 
Mary  B.  Page,  Dr.  Jenny  B.  Merrill,  Miss  Harriet 
Niel,  Miss  Nora  Smith,  Miss  Fanniebelle  Curtis,  and 
Miss  Annie  Laws. 

To  these  were  afterwards  added  Mrs.  James  L. 
Hughes,  Miss  Mary  C.  McCulloch,  Miss  Alice  C. 
Fitts,  and  Miss  Nina  C.  Vandewalker,  making  a 
Committee  of  Nineteen  instead  of  the  original  Fifteen. 
Miss  Smith  resigning  later,  her  place  was  filled  by 
Miss  Stovall,  who  also  resigned,  and  Mrs.  M.  B.  B. 
Langzettel  was  elected  to  fill  the  vacant  place. 

Miss  Blow  called  the  first  meeting  of  the  Committee 


i  INTRODUCTION 

at  Rochester  in  1904,  at  which  time  the  Committee 
organized  by  making  Miss  Wheelock  chairman  and 
Miss  Curtis  secretary.  Later,  at  Buffalo,  in  1909,  Miss 
Wheelock  resigned  from  the  chairmanship  on  account 
of  ill  health,  and  the  present  chairman  was  elected  to 
fill  the  vacancy. 

The  Committee  has  held  nine  sessions  at  the  same 
time  and  place  as  the  annual  meetings  of  the  Union, 
namely,  Rochester,  Toronto,  Milwaukee,  New  York, 
New  Orleans,  Buffalo,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  and  Des 
Moines,  and  two  special  sessions,  in  December,  1904, 
and  December,  1911,  in  New  York  City.  Each  session 
has  consisted  of  several  meetings.  The  session  held  at 
the  Hotel  Westminster,  New  York,  December  28-30, 
1904,  is  noticeable  as  having  a  complete  attendance  of 
the  Committee,  with  exception  of  Miss  Stovall,  who 
sent  her  resignation,  finding  the  distance  from  San 
Francisco  prohibitive  so  far  as  attendance  at  meetings 
was  concerned. 

At  the  second  New  York  session,  1907,  all  were 
present  but  Miss  Harrison,  and  at  the  third  New  York 
session,  hi  December,  1911,  all  were  present  but  five, 
making  the  New  York  sessions  the  most  largely  at- 
tended of  the  eleven. 

The  first  selection  of  topics  for  consideration  was 
under  the  following  headings:  — 
I.  Plans  of  Work. 
II.  Materials  and  Methods. 

III.  Psychology. 

IV.  Symbolism. 

The  Committee  resolved  itself  into  three  subdivis- 
ions with  the  following  leaders,  Miss  Blow,  Mrs.  Page, 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

and  Miss  Laws,  for  the  purpose  of  formulating  state- 
ments for  discussion. 

The  question  of  self -activity  aroused  a  very  spirited 
discussion  in  one  of  the  large  meetings.  The  philosophic 
and  psychologic  basis  of  practice;  the  place  of  imagin- 
ation in  the  life  of  the  child,  its  growth  and  culture 
through  constructive  and  aesthetic  occupations,  fairy 
tales,  and  games,  and  its  relation  to  the  formation  of 
ideals,  were  also  topics  under  consideration. 

Plans  of  work  formed  the  bases  of  many  discussions, 
with  the  object  of  gaining  comparative  views  of  lines 
of  work  as  followed  in  different  localities,  which  might 
be  of  practical  value  to  kindergartners.  The  annual 
conferences  of  training  teachers  and  supervisors  fre- 
quently enjoyed  the  fruits  of  many  of  these  discus- 
sions. 

One  result  was  undoubtedly  a  better  understand- 
ing among  Committee  members,  not  only  of  working 
principles  and  practice,  but  of  one  another,  and  the 
acquisition  of  more  definiteness  in  the  formulation  of 
ideas  and  principles.  While  diversity  of  opinion  un- 
doubtedly existed,  there  was  evident  a  unity  of  spirit 
and  a  common  desire  to  reach  the  best  and  see  the  best 
in  the  work  of  others. 

In  order  to  meet  the  desire  on  the  part  of  kinder- 
gartners and  educators  generally  for  such  a  statement 
as  not  only  should  embody  the  principles  which  have 
been  accepted  from  the  beginning,  but  should  sug- 
gest the  present  trend  of  the  movement  as  far  as  it 
could  be  determined  and  account  for  some  of  the 
variations  of  practice,  the  Committee  selected  as  a 
culminating  topic  the  following:  — 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

"Fundamental  differences  between  the  so-called 
schools  of  kindergarten ;  —  essential  differences  in  the 
varying  interpretations  of  Froebel's  theory." 

This  formed  the  basis  of  discussions  at  the  Mil- 
waukee and  New  Orleans  meetings. 

After  each  member  had  expressed  briefly  her  views, 
it  was  finally  decided  to  assign  to  three  leaders  the 
presentation  of  the  various  standpoints  classified 
under  the  headings  of  Conservative,  Liberal,  and 
Conservative-Liberal  or  Third  Report;  Miss  Blow  to 
present  the  first,  Miss  Vandewalker  the  second,  and 
Miss  Wheelock  the  third  point  of  view. 

The  three  authorized  reports  were  submitted,  care- 
fully read  and  discussed,  and  signed  respectively  by 
members  of  the  Committee  according  as  they  best 
represented  their  attitude  of  thought. 

The  following  preamble  to  the  reports  was  discussed 
and  arranged  by  the  Committee  in  session :  — 

"  In  thus  presenting  three  distinct  reports,  the  sign- 
ers desire  to  state  that  this  indicates  no  lack  of  har- 
mony on  the  part  of  members  of  the  Committee,  but 
an  earnest  endeavor  to  present  clearly  differing  points 
of  view  brought  out  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Com- 
mittee. 

"The  discussions  which  have  culminated  in  these 
reports  have  resulted  in  giving  to  the  members  clearer 
insight  and  an  increasing  appreciation  and  respect  for 
differing  points  of  view,  and  the  hope  is  expressed  that 
in  this  honest  presentation  of  view  the  whole  body  of 
kindergartners  may  be  stimulated  to  more  alert  thought 
and  earnest  study  which  may  lead  eventually  to  a 
larger  synthesis." 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

These  reports  were  presented  at  the  business  meet- 
ing of  the  International  Kindergarten  Union  in 
Buffalo,  April  29,  1909,  accepted  by  the  Union,  and 
ordered  printed  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Sixteenth 
Annual  Meeting,  which  were  distributed  among  mem- 
bers and  branches  of  the  Union,  and  copies  of  which 
are  still  available. 

The  Committee  was  continued  by  order  of  the  Union, 
and  the  following  two  meetings  were  held  at  St.  Louis 
and  Cincinnati  respectively. 

At  the  former  the  following  resolutions  were  pre- 
sented to  the  Union  by  the  Committee:  — 

"WHEREAS  the  kindergarten  cause  throughout  the 
United  States  has  suffered  an  inestimable  loss  in  the 
death  of  Dr.  William  T.  Harris: 

"Resolved:  That  the  Committee  of  Nineteen  of  the 
International  Kindergarten  Union  express  its  sincere 
appreciation  of  the  debt  which  all  kindergartners  owe 
to  Dr.  Harris  for  the  invaluable  services,  the  stanch 
support,  and  the  wise  counsel  which  he  gave  to  the 
cause,  especially  in  its  early  history. 

"Resolved :  That  the  Committee  also  recognizes  that 
in  his  intellectual  greatness,  philosophic  insight,  and 
unwavering  allegiance  are  found  the  influences  which 
more  than  any  other  have  given  the  kindergarten  its 
high  place  in  American  education. 

"  Resolved :  That  a  copy  of  these  Resolutions  be  sent 
to  the  family,  also  presented  to  the  International 
Kindergarten  Union,  with  the  request  that  it  be  spread 
upon  the  minutes  and  published  in  the  Annual  Re- 
port." 

This  was  signed  by  all  members  of  the  Committee, 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

and  a  copy  appeared  in  the  Seventeenth  Annual 
Report. 

At  the  Cincinnati  meeting  in  April,  1910,  it  was 
decided  to  gather  together  all  past  papers  and  ma- 
terial for  presentation,  but  not  for  publication. 
Headings  for  final  report  were  arranged  as  follows: — 
I.  Statement  of  type  of  program  preferred. 
II.  Principles  underlying  program  making. 

III.  Process  of  program  making. 

IV.  Concrete  illustrations. 

Miss  Blow,  Miss  Hill,  and  Miss  Harrison  were 
selected  to  present  three  papers  along  these  lines  at  a 
session  to  be  held  in  New  York  in  December,  1911. 

Miss  Blow  and  Miss  Hill  presented  reports,  and  Miss 
Harrison,  who  was  unable  to  be  present,  presented  her 
report  later  at  Des  Moines,  in  April,  1912. 

Copies  of  these  reports  were  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  following  Advisory  Committee  of  Men  who  had 
consented  to  give  the  benefit  of  their  views  on  the 
questions  presented:  Professor  Henry  W.  Holmes,  Dr. 
John  A.  McVannel,  Dr.  John  Dewey,  Mr.  James  L. 
Hughes,  Dr.  Angell. 

The  presentation  of  the  completed  report  of  the 
Committee  to  the  Union  at  the  Des  Moines  meeting 
and  the  arrangements  for  final  form  of  publication 
were  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  Committee  of  Five,  con- 
sisting of  Miss  Blow,  Miss  Hill,  Miss  Wheelock,  and 
the  Chairman  and  the  Secretary  ex-officio. 

It  was  decided  to  eliminate  former  headings  of 
reports,  and  designate  them  simply  as  First,  Second, 
and  Third  Reports. 

A  letter  from  Mrs.  Kraus-Boelt£  contained  a  render- 


INTRODUCTION  zv 

ing  of  an  old  fable  which  seemed  such  an  apt  illustra- 
tion of  some  of  the  present  conditions  in  the  kinder- 
garten that  it  was  decided  to  include  the  following 
abstract  in  the  final  report.1 

In  bringing  the  work  of  the  Committee  of  Nineteen 
to  a  culmination  in  the  presentation  of  its  final  report, 
the  hope  is  expressed  by  the  members  of  the  Commit- 
tee that  one  result  of  the  valuable  experiences  gained 
through  these  conferences  may  be  the  formation  in  the 
International  Kindergarten  Union  of  a  Department  of 
Training  Teachers  and  Supervisors  in  which  members 
of  the  Committee  may  find  opportunity  to  continue 
on  a  broader  scale  and  with  greater  numbers  the  dis- 

1  "A  father  had  three  sons  whom  he  loved  equally  well.  This 
father  owned  a  precious  Ring  —  said  to  be  endowed  with  power  to 
bring  highest  blessings  to  its  owner.  Each  one  of  the  three  sons  asked 
the  father  to  bestow  the  Ring  on  him  after  the  father's  death.  The 
father,  in  his  great  love  for  his  sons,  promised  the  Ring  to  each  one. 
In  his  old  age,  the  father  sent  for  a  jeweler  and  asked  him  to  make 
two  rings  exactly  like  the  precious  Ring  owned  by  him.  The  jeweler 
assented,  and  after  a  while  he  brought  the  three  rings  to  the  father, 
who  could  not  distinguish  the  precious  Ring  from  the  other  two,  so 
well  were  they  made.  When  the  time  came  that  the  father  died,  he 
called  each  of  his  sons  separately  to  him,  blessed  him,  and  gave  him 
a  ring.  After  the  father's  burial,  the  three  brothers  met,  and  each 
one  claimed  the  birthright  and  the  ownership  of  the  genuine  Ring. 
Finally,  when  they  could  not  decide  which  was  the  original  one,  they 
went  to  a  Judge,  who  gave  the  decision  in  the  form  of  advice,  viz., 
'As  the  true  Ring  is  said  to  have  the  magic  power  of  making  the 
owner  beloved  and  esteemed  by  God  and  man,  and  as  each  of  you 
three  brothers  believes  his  Ring  to  be  the  genuine  or  original  one,  so 
let  each  one,  untouched  by  his  prejudice,  strive  to  reveal  the  power 
of  the  Ring  in  his  life  by  loving  peaceableness,  and  by  charity  and 
sincere  devotion  to  God;  and  when  in  later  generations  the  power  of 
the  true  Ring  reveals  itself,  I  will  call  upon  you  again,  before  the 
"seat  of  Judgment."  A  wiser  man  than  I  am  may  be  there  and 
speak.'" 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

cussions  and  conferences  which  they  have  found  pro- 
ductive of  so  much  interest  and  value  to  themselves 
and  through  them  to  others. 

The  Chairman  desires  to  express  her  appreciation 
of  the  able  manner  in  which  the  Committee  was  organ- 
ized by  her  predecessor,  Miss  Wheelock,  thus  greatly 
simplifying  her  work;  and  also  her  sincere  thanks  to  all 
of  the  members  of  the  Committee  and  especially  to 
the  efficient  secretary,  Miss  Curtis,  for  their  hearty 
cooperation.  She  congratulates  herself  that  she  was 
present  at  the  Pittsburgh  meeting  when  the  Committee 
was  formed  and  has  been  able  to  attend  all  of  the  eleven 
sessions.1 

ANNIE  LAWS,  Chairman, 
Committee  of  Nineteen,  International  Kindergarten  Union. 

1  Since  the  completion  of  the  final  report  of  the  Committee  of 
Nineteen,  Miss  Caroline  T.  Haven  has  been  called  from  among  us. 

Miss  Haven  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  International  Kinder- 
garten Union.  She  served  it  first  as  corresponding  secretary,  then  aa 
vice-president,  again  as  secretary,  and  in  1899  was  elected  president; 
and  this  position  she  filled  a  second  time.  She  was  long  on  the  Ad- 
visory Committee,  and  from  the  formation  of  the  Committee  of 
Nineteen  she  was  one  of  its  most  honored  members.  Miss  Haven 
attended  the  last  meeting  of  the  Committee  at  the  Hotel  Marseilles 
in  New  York,  in  December,  1911,  knowing  full  well  that  the  hand 
of  the  angel  was  stretched  out  to  her.  But  her  attitude  was  always 
one  of  fearless  courage.  A  few  months  previous,  when,  as  Chairman 
of  the  Nominating  Committee  of  the  International  Kindergarten 
Union,  she  had  been  cautioned  by  a  friend  because  of  the  labor  in- 
volved, she  had  replied,  "  As  this  is  in  all  probability  my  last  bit  of 
service  for  the  International  Kindergarten  Union,  I  want  it  to  repre- 
sent my  best  effort  at  any  cost." 

No  tribute  that  we  can  accord  Caroline  T.  Haven  is  too  great. 
She  was  the  rugged,  sincere,  invigorating  friend,  yet  withal  most 
gracious  and  kindly;  and  these  remembrances  of  her  are  the  lasting 
and  dear  possession  of  each  member  of  the  Committee  of  Nineteen. 


FIRST  REPORT 
SUSAN  E.  BLOW 


PART  I 

THE  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  GLIEDGANZES 

THE  kindergarten  is  one  phase  of  the  general  educa- 
tional process  and  will  be  differently  conceived  as  that 
process  is  differently  understood.  In  other  words,  our 
conception  of  the  kindergarten  will  depend  ultimately 
upon  our  definition  of  education. 

Definitions  of  education  may  be  more  or  less  com- 
prehensive. Thus  education  may  be  broadly  conceived 
as  a  process  of  interaction  between  the  individual,  the 
social  whole,  and  the  natural  environment.  In  a  still 
wider  sense  history  may  be  conceived  as  an  educative 
process  and  defined  as  a  series  of  interactions  continued 
through  centuries,  and  extended  from  limited  to  larger 
physical  and  social  environments. 

Thus  far  there  is  quite  general  agreement  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  educative  process.  It  seems  to  be  fur- 
ther agreed  that  in  a  more  specific  sense  education  is 
"the  conscious  control  and  direction  of  the  process 
of  interaction";1  that  it  involves  the  influence  of  a 
relatively  mature  person  over  a  person  relatively  im- 
mature; that  the  standard  for  determining  educational 
values  is  the  civilization  into  which  the  pupil  is  born, 
and  that  in  the  psychical  powers  and  attitudes  of  the 
pupil  must  be  sought  the  basis  for  educational  method. 

The  perplexing  questions  of  education  arise  within 

1  See  Kindergarten  Problems,  pp.  3-6.  Columbia  University  Press. 


4  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

the  limits  of  these  large  agreements.  The  recognized 
values  of  life  are  not  all  equally  valuable.  No  consensus 
of  opinion  has  been  reached  as  to  their  relative  values. 
From  this  lack  of  agreement  as  to  relative  values 
spring  differences  of  opinion  as  to  emphasis  upon 
language,  literature,  history,  and  art  on  the  one  side 
and  the  natural  sciences  and  industries  on  the  other. 
Even  more  fundamental  than  this  contrasted  emphasis, 
is  the  contrasted  emphasis  upon  the  ethical  and  intel- 
lectual values.  Finally,  besides  the  problems  relating 
to  relative  emphasis  upon  different  values,  must  be 
mentioned  the  very  serious  problems  arising  from  the 
attempts  to  discriminate  the  specific  contribution  of 
different  educational  agencies  to  the  general  process 
of  education.  The  family,  the  kindergarten,  the  eco- 
nomic organization,  the  state,  and  the  church,  all 
exercise  some  conscious  control  and  direction  over  the 
general  process  of  interaction  between  the  individual, 
the  social  whole,  and  the  physical  environment.  It  is 
in  drawing  the  boundary  lines  between  these  several 
spheres  of  influence  that  educational  theory  confronts 
some  of  its  gravest  problems,  and  educational  practice 
some  of  its  most  serious  difficulties.  Shall  the  teaching 
of  religion  be  relegated  entirely  to  the  family  and  the 
church,  or  shall  any  portion  of  such  teaching  be  given 
in  the  kindergarten  and  the  school?  How  far  shall  the 
common  school  prepare  for  the  industries  and  arts,  and 
how  much  may  it  do  to  capacitate  its  pupils  for  citi- 
zenship? To  what  extent  shall  the  kindergarten  assume 
responsibilities  hitherto  conceived  as  belonging  exclu- 
sively to  the  family?  What  dangers  are  incident  to  the 
assumption  by  one  educational  institution  of  duties 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  6 

belonging  primarily  to  another?  These  questions  sug- 
gest some  of  the  more  serious  problems  with  which 
thoughtful  educators  are  constantly  wrestling. 

The  various  perplexities  suggested  in  the  preceding 
questions  are  concerned  with  educational  values  and 
agencies.  Another  series  of  perplexities  arises  when 
we  devote  our  attention  to  educational  method,  for, 
while  there  is  general  agreement  as  to  the  fact  that  its 
basis  must  be  psychological,  there  is  the  widest  diver- 
gence of  opinion  as  to  the  interpretation  of  psycho- 
logical data,  and  the  relative  accent  to  be  placed  upon 
different  psychical  capacities  and  attitudes. 

Two  great  educational  documents,  "The  Report  of 
the  Committee  of  Ten"  and  "The  Report  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fifteen,"  have  made  all  students  of  educa- 
tion aware  of  a  contrasted  emphasis  upon  the  rational 
type  of  mankind,  and  the  native  tendencies  of  partic- 
ular human  beings  which  deviate  from  that  type.  The 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  "proceeds  upon  the 
view  that  each  peculiar  and  individual  expression  of 
the  common  human  nature  is  the  one  fact  of  truly 
cardinal  value";  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of 
Fifteen,  "upon  the  view  that  the  supreme  considera- 
tion must  be  the  type  characteristically  human,  not 
private  and  peculiar,  but  public,  generic,  and  above 
all  historic."1 

The  kindergarten  is  an  attempt  to  mediate  these 
contrasting  views.  It  holds  with  the  latter  view  that 
the  supreme  consideration  is  the  type  characteristic- 
ally human,  but  it  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  this 

1  Prof.  W.  G.  Howison,  The  Correlation  of  Elementary  Studies, 
University  of  California. 


6  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

type  itself  has  not  been  adequately  realized.  "One 
generation  does  not  follow  another  in  facsimile.  Each 
generation  is  a  step  in  human  progress  and  each 
new  birth  an  unprecedented  experiment."  Therefore, 
while  insisting  upon  the  "rational  authority  of  the 
human  type  historically  developed  and  tested  and 
warranted,"  the  kindergarten  demands  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  that  individual  initiative,  through  which 
the  type  may  be  more  completely  revealed  and 
embodied.1 

No  less  fundamental  than  the  contrasting  apprecia- 
tions of  educational  values  and  the  contrasting  accents 
of  educational  methods,  are  the  contrasting  convic- 
tions with  regard  to  the  goal  of  the  educational  process. 
It  is  held  by  some  thinkers  that  the  sufficient  aim  of 
education  is  to  make  men  ethical.  Critics  of  this  view 
contend  that  it  is  one-sided  because  it  ignores  the 
intellect  and  places  all  its  stress  upon  the  will,  and  they 
offer  as  a  more  adequate  definition  of  the  goal  of  edu- 
cation that  it  is  "development  of  the  theoretical  and 
practical  reason  in  the  individual."  This  latter  con- 

1  "'Man,  humanity  in  man,  as  an  external  manifestation  should 
be  looked  upon,  not  as  fixed  and  stationary,  but  as  steadily  and 
progressively  growing  in  a  state  of  ever  living  development,  ever 
ascending  from  one  stage  of  culture  towards  its  aim,  which  partakes 
of  the  infinite  and  eternal. 

"It  is  unspeakably  pernicious  to  look  upon  the  development  of 
humanity  as  stationary  and  completed  and  to  see  in  its  present 
phases  simply  repetitions  and  greater  generalizations  of  itself.  For 
the  child  as  well  as  every  successive  generation  becomes  thereby 
exclusively  imitative,  an  external  copy,  as  it  were  a  cast  of  the 
preceding  one,  and  not  a  living  ideal  for  its  stage  of  development, 
which  it  has  attained  in  human  development  considered  as  a  whole, 
to  serve  future  generations  in  all  time  to  come."  Education  of  Man, 
pp.  17-18. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  7 

oeption  is  in  accord  with  the  ideal  of  Froebel  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  statement:  "By  education, 
then,  the  divine  essence  of  man  should  be  unfolded, 
brought  out,  lifted  into  consciousness,  and  man  him- 
self raised  into  free,  conscious  obedience  to  the  divine 
principle  that  lives  in  him,  and  to  a  free  representation 
of  this  principle  in  his  life."1 

Differing  appreciations  of  educational  values,  dif- 
fering interpretations  of  psychologic  data,  and  differ- 
ing conceptions  of  the  goal  towards  which  education 
should  move  are  finally  to  be  explained  through 
differing  world- views,  whether  such  views  be  the  mys- 
tical presuppositions  of  religion,  or  the  consciously 
defined  and  organized  presuppositions  of  philosophy. 
The  norms  of  Oriental  civilization  differ  from  those  of 
Occidental  civilization,  because  the  two  civilizations 
are  based  upon  contrasting  world- views.  The  world- 
view  consciously  or  unconsciously  adopted  by  each 
particular  educator  colors  all  his  thinking  and  biases 
all  his  practical  activity.  Defining  the  educative  pro- 
cess in  its  larger  sense,  as  one  of  mutual  adjustment 
between  the  individual  and  his  social  environment,  we 
become  aware  that,  in  our  country  and  age,  both 
change  so  rapidly  that  we  are  threatened  with  educa- 
tional anarchy.  Furthermore,  the  immature  individual 
is  often  subjected  to  a  bewildering  variety  of  educa- 
tional environments.  The  child  of  Hebrew  parentage, 
sent  to  a  Christian  kindergarten,  promoted  to  a  school 
whose  teachers  have  inwardly  renounced  Christianity 
in  favor  of  scientific  materialism,  and  graduating  from 
a  university  whose  professors  are  under  the  spell  of 
1  Education  of  Man,  p.  4. 


8"  THE  KINDERGABTEN 

pragmatism,  will  have  lived  through  a  series  of  adjust- 
ments and  readjustments  with  manifestly  problematic 
outcome. 

In  what  has  thus  far  been  said  there  has  been  an 
effort  to  suggest  the  necessity  for  some  conscious 
standard  by  which  the  goal  of  education  may  be  deter- 
mined, the  several  educational  values  appraised,  and 
the  psychical  capacities  and  attitudes  interpreted. 
For  the  disciple  of  Froebel  such  a  standard  is  provided 
in  the  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes. 

The  signers  of  this  report  hold  that  the  conception 
of  the  Gliedganzes  embodies  final  truth  which  may 
be  dialectically  demonstrated.  In  claiming  for  it  the 
mark  of  finality  they  mean,  not  that  it  leaves  nothing 
new  to  be  discovered,  but  that  all  new  discoveries  of 
truth  will  make  explicit  some  of  its  as  yet  undefined 
implications. 

While  the  word  Gliedganzes  was  coined  by  Froebel, 
the  conception  it  embodies  did  not  originate  with  him. 
It  is  mystically  divined  by  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness, and  mystically  stated  in  Christian  creeds.  As  a 
philosophic  insight  it  has  been  attained  by  a  heroic 
struggle  with  the  implications  of  self-activity.  The 
everlasting  foundation  of  philosophy  was  laid  when 
Plato  announced  his  insight  into  the  self-moved.  To 
Aristotle  it  became  clear  that  the  self-movement 
demanded  was  most  adequately  realized  in  the  think- 
ing activity  or  reason.  The  doctrine  of  the  Gliedganzes 
is  simply  a  statement  of  the  necessary  implications  of 
a  completely  realized  thinking  activity.  These  impli- 
cations have  been  more  adequately  developed  by  Hegel 
than  by  any  other  philosopher.  Finally,  one  essential 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  9 

phase  of  the  idea  overlooked  by  Hegel  has  been  pointed 
out  by  Dr.  Harris.  The  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gliedganzes  can  be  apprehended  by  any  person  who 
will  go  through  the  necessary  mental  discipline.  This 
report  presupposes  the  Gliedganzes  as  true,  and  limits 
itself  to  a  description,  as  opposed  to  a  justification,  of 
the  insight. 

The  word  Gliedganzes  means  the  member  of  a  whole  /, 
who  is  potentially  commensurate  with  the  whole  to 
which  as  member  he  belongs,  but  who  can  make  this  ; 
potentiality  actual,  only  in  and  through  active  mem- 
bership. Each  individual  human  being  is  an  incarnate 
paradox.  He  is  an  integral  member  of  humanity.  He  is 
also  ideally  coextensive  with  humanity.  Throughout 
the  vegetable  and  animal  world  there  is  a  bridgeless 
chasm  between  the  individual  and  the  species.  Hence 
nature  presents  the  tragic  spectacle  of  generic  energies 
which  are  always  seeking,  but  never  finding,  their 
.adequate  embodiment.  No  rose  can  be  all  roses,  and 
no  dog  all  dogs.  As  a  physical  being  man  is  subject  to 
the  same  limitation,  and  the  human  species  falls  apart 
into  races,  these  into  tribes,  and  tribes  into  mutually 
excluding  individuals.  Spiritual  humanity,  on  the 
contrary,  is  not  a  whole  composed  of  parts,  but  a  whole  / 
composed  of  wholes,  a  totality  wherein  each  individual 
is  also  total.  As  an  intellectual  and  volitional  being 
each  man  is  ideally  capable  of  reproducing  the  human 
^pecies  within  himself.  He  can  assimilate  all  human  . 
experience,  and  order  his  life  in  free  obedience  to  the 
ideals  which  are  its  distilled  result.  The  final  outcome  of 
this  intellectually  and  morally  assimilated  experience  is 
the  development  of  impulses  accordant  with  its  ideals. 


10  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

The  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes  is  not  fully 
apprehended  when  it  is  conceived  as  relating  only  to 
the  relationship  between  the  individual  human  being 
and  the  human  species.  It  contains  three  distinct  im- 
plications, all  of  which  must  be  clearly  seized  before 
the  doctrine  itself  can  be  adequately  understood.  The 
/  /  first  of  these  implications  is  that  "that  which  is  generic 
or  the  reproducer  of  the  species  in  lower  forms  of  life, 
becomes  the  Ego  in  man,"  and  that  it  is  because  in 
each  man  humanity  is  implicit  that  from  each  man  it 
»  may  be  evolved.  The  second  implication  is  that  this 
generic  Ego  or  universal  self  is  not  only  the  ideal 
human,  but  the  divine;  the  God  immanent  in  man,  yet 
j  \  transcendent  of  him.  The  third  and  final  implication 
is  that  this  immanent-transcendent  God  is  one  with 
the  absolute  first  principle  through  which  nature  is 
given  its  being. 

No  student  of  contemporary  philosophy  can  fail  to  be 
aware  that,  in  all  its  varieties,  it  tends  towards  denial 
of  the  theses  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Gliedganzes 
asserts.  Its  general  tendency  is  to  minimize  the  signi- 
ficance of  human  self-consciousness.  The  accent  of 
thought  is  upon  will,  or  self-determining  activity  con- 
ceived in  detachment  from  self -consciousness,  or  aware- 
ness of  this  self-determining  activity  by  itself.  The 
result  is  an  ominous  one..  In  proportion  as  self-con- 
sciousness is  minimized,  self-determination  or  will  is 
finitized,  and  in  proportion  as  will  is  finitized,  man- 
kind is  lost  in  men. 

The  general  tendency  above  described  shows  itself 
in  different  forms  in  the  several  systems  of  philosophy 
most  in  vogue.  Contemporary  naturalism  discredits 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  11 

self -consciousness  altogether  as  a  regrettable  by-pro- 
duct of  evolution,  and  hence  looks  upon  humanity  as 
a  mere  transition  towards  a  higher  race.  Pragmatism 
denies  an  absolute  subject,  active  in  nature,  and  imma- 
nent in  man  as  the  transcendental  self.  Hence  it  knows 
no  eternal  values,  and  its  adventurous  universe  is  with- 
out a  chart  to  guide  its  uncertain  course.  Contempo- 
rary gnosticism  accepts  an  absolute  first  principle,  but 
looks  upon  nature  as  a  finite  conscious  life;  conceives 
humanity  as  a  specification  of  this  life  and  interprets 
the  relationship  of  individual  man  to  the  human  spe- 
cies after  the  biologic  analogy.  Finally,  contemporary 
mysticism  in  all  its  varieties  denies  to  conscious  intel- 
lect ability  to  ratify  and  interpret  the  occult  divina- 
tions of  the  subconscious  self,  and  therefore  tends  per- 
petually to  fall  into  agnosticism. 

In  opposition  to  all  these  philosophies,  the  doctrine 
of  the  Gliedganzes  presupposes  a  completely  realized 
self-consciousness  as  the  absolute  first  principle  of  the 
universe,  asserts  the  participation  of  humanity  in  this 
principle,  declares  that  all  valid  ideals  are  its  approxi- 
mate definitions,  recognizes  that  all  creations  of  art 
express  its  form,  and  defines  the  aim  of  education  as  its 
more  perfect  realization  in  all  individuals. 

The  object  of  the  foregoing  discussion  has  been  to 
describe  the  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes,  and 
to  suggest  that  it  implies  in  each  individual  participa- 
tion in  that  aboriginal  self-determining  energy  which 
achieves  in  self -consciousness  its  ideal  form.  Only  a 
self-conscious  being  could  be  a  Gliedganzes,  because 
only  in  self-consciousness  does  a  generic  energy  du- 
plicate itself  in  its  product.  Humanity  is  implicit  in 


12  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

each  individual  of  the  race.  This  implicit  humanity 
is  divine.  T.O  make  the  implicit  divine  explicit  is  the 
goal  of  education.  It  can  become  explicit  only  in  self- 
consciousness.  Hence,  says  Froebel,  "To  become  con- 
scious of  itself  is  the  first  task  in  the  life  of  a  child  as 
it  is  the  task  of  the  whole  life  of  man." 

Manifestly  the  realization  of  self-consciousness 
through  the  reproduction  of  the  genus  within  the 
individual  is  a  goal  which  education  can  never  reach. 
It  is  none  the  less  a  goal  towards  which  education 
must  always  move. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  should  be  evident  that 
the  educational  ideal  implicit  in  the  conception  of  man 
as  Gliedganzes  is  most  inadequately  defined  when  it 
is  limited  to  education  for  the  purpose  of  social 
efficiency.  The  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes  im- 
plies, indeed,  that  the  individual  shall  act  as  a  worthy 
member  of  a  social  whole,  but  it  also  induces  modesty 
by  its  insistence  that  only  in  and  through  active  mem- 
bership can  the  individual  either  realize  or  know  him- 
self. "Educate  your  child  in  this  manner,"  writes 
Froebel,  "and  at  the  goal  of  his  education  he  will 
recognize  himself  as  the  living  member  of  a  living 
whole,  and  will  know  that  his  life  mirrors  the  life  of 
his  family,  his  people,  humanity,  the  being  and  life  of 
God  who  works  in  all  and  through  all.  Having  at- 
tained to  a  clear  vision  of  the  universal  life,  his  con- 
scious aim  will  be  to  manifest  it  in  his  feeling  and 
thought,  in  his  relationships  and  his  deeds.  Through 
the  self-consecration  begotten  of  this  lofty  ideal  he 
will  learn  to  understand  nature,  human  experience, 
and  the  prescient  yearnings  of  his  own  soul.  His 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  IS 

individual  life  will  flow  with  the  currents  of  nature 
and  of  humanity,  and  move  towards  a  realization  of 
the  divine  ideal  immanent  in  both." l 

In  his  preface  to  Symbolic  Education,  Dr.  Harris 
calls  attention  to  the  several  facts  that  the  first  state- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  the  Gliedganzes  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Metaphysics  of  Aristotle;  that  this  doctrine  is 
an  explication  of  the  constitution  of  mind;  and  that 
the  constitution  of  mind,  as  we  know  it  in  ourselves, 
points  towards  a  completely  realized  Gliedganzes  as 
divine  first  principle  of  the  universe.  "It  is  interesting 
to  note,"  he  writes,  "that  Hegel  found  this  thought 
in  the  famous  seventh  chapter  of  the  seventh  book  of 
Aristotle's  Metaphysics,  where  he  speaks  of  the  intel- 
ligible as  being  the  'co-element'  (crvoroixia)  of  the 
thinking  activity  or  reason  (vovs).  He  exclaims,  on 
quoting  this  passage,  '  One  can  scarce  believe  his  eyes/ 
at  finding  this  thought  in  Aristotle;  and  proceeds  to 
explain  the  word  <™<rroixt'a  (which  is  often  translated 
series}  as  sometimes  signifying  'an  element  which  is 
itself  its  own  element,  and  is  always  self -determined* 

—  that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  member  of  itself  and  thus  a 
whole  and  a  part  at  the  same  time.  The  reach  of  this 
thought  is  noteworthy  as  explaining  the  constitution 
of  mind  or  consciousness  (which  is  subject  and  object 

—  co-elements  —  and  at  the  same  time  a  whole  in- 
cluding both;  the  subject  and   object  are  likewise 
wholes  as  well  as  co-elements).    Here  we  have  a 
Gliedganzes.    But  what  man  is  as  personality,  he  is 
also  in  his  institutions;  he  is  a  citizen  of  a  state;  the 
parent  or  the  child  of  the  family;  a  member  of  any 

1  Mottoes  and  Commentaries,  p.  60. 


14  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

cooperative  community.  This,  too,  is  expressed  in 
the  highest  thought  man  has  reached,  that  of  the 
Invisible  Church  celebrated  in  St.  John's  Revelation, 
wherein  each  person,  inspired  by  the  missionary  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  for  others,  becomes  a  member  of  an 
infinite  choir  or  congregation,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  is  an  individual  self-active  whole  in  himself.  In- 
deed, is  not  the  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity  the 
supreme  exemplar  of  this  independence  in  the  midst 
of  perfect  unity  with  others?  " l 

The  nature  of  man  as  a  potential  Gliedganzes  is  not 
understood  until  it  is  illuminated  by  the  conception  of 
God  as  an  actual  Gliedganzes.  The  Christian  doctrine 
of  a  triune  God  is  a  mystical  statement  of  the  divine 
first  principle  as  a  completely  realized  Gliedganzes. 
The  supreme  achievement  of  philosophy  has  been  the 
transfiguration  of  this  mystic  intuition  into  a  compel- 
ling insight  which  may  be  actively  reproduced  by  each 
individual  thinker.  The  Froebelian  ideal  of  education 
consciously  posits  this  coercive  insight  as  its  goal.  The 
individual  shall  know  God  as  an  actual,  and  man  as 
a  potential,  Gliedganzes,  and  his  deeds  and  impulses 
shall  be  accordant  with  this  knowledge. 

1  Symbolic  Education,  Editor's  Preface,  pp.  xiv-xv. 


PART  II 

THE  DEFINITION  AND  ORDER  OF 
EDUCATIONAL  VALUES 

HAVING  defined  the  goal  of  education  as  determined 
by  the  standard  of  the  Gliedganzes,  we  must  next 
apply  the  same  criterion  to  the  definition  and  ordering 
of  the  several  educational  values.  These  values  may 
be  summarily  included  under  the  heads  of  Religion, 
Ethics,  Language,  Literature,  History,  the  Fine  Arts 
and  Industries,  Mathematics,  and  Natural  Science. 
It  is  to  be  understood  that  our  discussion  of  these 
values  is  independent  of  the  questions  of  educational 
methods  and  agencies.  We  are  not  asking  how,  or 
by  whom,  the  several  values  shall  be  developed,  but 
simply  discussing  these  values  in  and  for  themselves. 
Our  reason  for  preceding  the  consideration  of  a  kinder- 
garten program  by  a  discussion  of  educational  values 
is,  that  we  believe  each  value  must  be  conceived  in  its 
entire  scope,  and  in  its  relation  to  all  other  values,  in 
order  that,  from  the  beginning,  it  may  be  rightly 
developed. 

THE  FIRST  GREAT  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE:  RELIGION 

In  the  order  of  educational  values  for  the  Occidental 
world,  the  Christian  religion  ranks  first,  because  in  the 
form  of  a  mystic  experience  it  is  the  primary  revela- 
tion of  God  as  an  actual,  and  man  as  a  potential  Glied- 
ganzes. The  root  of  religion  is  the  feeling  of  community 


16  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

with  invisible  beings,  or  with  one  transcendent  invisi- 
ble being — God.  There  may,  however,  be  different 
conceptions  of  God.  Christianity  is  that  religion  which 
conceives  God  as  transcendent,  immanent,  and  incar- 
nate. He  is  primarily  the  self-subsistent  and  transcen- 
dent Unity  —  God  over  all.  He  gives  himself  to  all 
things  in  so  far  as  they  are  able  to  receive  Him,  and  is 
therefore  immanent  in  nature  and  in  humanity.  The 
goal  of  immanence  is  incarnation,  and  the  Christian 
God  is  conceived  as  incarnate  potentially  in  all  men, 
and  actually  in  one  historic  individual,  who  in  virtue 
of  this  incarnation  becomes  the  concrete  revelation 
of  what  God  is,  and  man  ought  to  be. 

The  Christian  religion  teaches  that  what  is  true  of 
Christ  is  true  of  God.1  The  supreme  revelation  of 
Christ's  divine  human  life  is  made  in  the  Cross,  and 
the  final  import  of  the  Cross  is  that  the  historic  sacri- 
fice upon  Calvary  adumbrates  that  perpetual  sacrifice 
through  which  a  God  of  perfect  love  communicates 
Himself  to  and  realizes  Himself  in  and  through  his 
creatures.  Unless  there  be,  indeed,  an  eternal  reality 
corresponding  to  the  historic  event,  all  the  light  of 
sacred  story  gathers  in  vain  around  the  Cross,  and 
that  law  of  sacrifice  which  is  the  law  of  life  remains  a 
ghastly  and  intimidating  mystery.  The  eternal  Cross 
is  God's  eternal  plight  of  love,  and  it  is  the  increasing 
penetration  of  God's  world  by  God's  spirit  which 
explains  the  sacrifice  of  the  bird  for  its  nestling,  of  the 

1  Philip  saith  unto  him,  Lord,  show  us  the  Father,  and  it  suffic- 
eth  us.  Jesus  saith  unto  him.  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you,  and 
dost  thou  not  know  me,  Philip?  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father;  how  sayest  thou.  Show  us  the  Father?  John  xiv,  8-0. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  17 

human  mother  for  her  child,  of  the  patriot  for  his  coun« 
try,  of  the  hero  for  his  cause,  of  the  missionary  for  the 
cannibal,  of  Jesus  for  the  world. 

It  should  be  evident  to  any  thoughtful  person  that 
this  summarized  statement  of  Christianity  relates 
only  to  the  most  fundamental  facts  of  the  Christian 
consciousness,  and  ignores  the  more  or  less  adequate 
interpretations  of  that  consciousness  as  bodied  forth 
in  the  varying  creeds  of  Christendom.  All  Christian 
churches  accept  in  some  form  the  dogmas  of  transcen- 
dence, immanence,  and  incarnation,  and  all  recognize, 
though  in  differing  degrees,  the  authority  of  one  divine 
human  life.  The  substance  of  the  definition  given  is 
the  common  experience  which  discriminates  the  Chris- 
tian from  the  non-Christian  world,  and  since  this 
experience  is  the  chief  norm  of  Occidental  civilization, 
it  seems  not  only  reasonable,  but  imperative  that  its 
influence  should  pervade  all  phases  of  education.  In 
other  words,  while  it  is  the  duty  and  privilege  of  each 
Christian  church  to  give  its  specific  interpretation  of 
the  Christian  consciousness,  that  consciousness  itself 
should  be  presupposed  by  and  clarified  through  all 
education,  direct  and  indirect,  given  by  the  family,  the 
school,  the  community,  the  economic  organization, 
and  the  state.  The  location  of  any  point  on  the  earth's 
surface  is  accurately  fixed  only  when  it  is  referred  to  as 
the  projection  of  a  corresponding  point  of  the  celestial 
sphere.  So  each  great  human  value  is  accurately  de- 
fined only  when  conceived  as  the  projection  of  a  cor- 
responding eternal  value. 

Since  religion  belongs  to  the  realm  of  the  subcon- 
scious, and  embodies  a  mystic  experience,  it  becomes 


18  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  primary  importance  to  discriminate  between  differ- 
ent varieties  of  this  experience.  The  tendency  of  con- 
temporary mysticism  is  to  assert  the  divinity  of  the 
subconscious.  It  would  be  quite  as  true  to  assert  its 
diabolism.  The  subconscious  as  such  has  no  character; 
it  is  simply  a  name  which  we  give  to  that  part  of  our 
mental  life  which  is  beyond  our  own  ken,  and  it  is  often 
intellectually  foolish  and  morally  perverse.  A  criterion 
is  necessary  by  which  its  divinations  may  be  tested, 
and  that  criterion  is  the  form  of  self-activity.  Since 
this  form  is  ours,  or,  more  correctly  stated,  since  we 
are  this  form,  it  acts  in  us  both  as  a  creative  and  apper- 
ceptive  agency.  Its  definitions  are  our  ideals;  its  self- 
projection  creates  art;  its  selective  interest  directed 
towards  the  phenomena  of  nature  gives  birth  to  science; 
and  its  occult  sense  of  its  own  divinity  is  our  mys- 
tic experience  of  God  transcendent,  immanent,  and 
incarnate.  It  is  not  the  subconscious  which  is  divine, 
but  the  eternal  form  of  self-activity  present  in  the  sub- 
conscious, and  emerging  from  it,  first  as  feeling,  imagi- 
nation, and  conscience,  and  finally  as  reason  aware  of 
itself.  Testing  the  dicta  of  our  subconscious  selves  by 
this  criterion,  we  are  able  to  judge  which  are  of  God 
and  which  of  the  devil. 

The  absolute  truth  adumbrated  in  the  mystic  divin- 
ations of  the  Christian  religion  is  God  as  completely 
objectified  self-consciousness,  and  therefore  as  com- 
pletely realized  Gliedganzes.  To  know  this  true  God, 
live  in  communion  with  Him,  and  become  assimilated 
to  Him  through  participation  in  His  eternal  life,  is  the 
goal  of  human  existence.  It  follows  that  education  as 
a  conscious  process  should  posit  the  same  goal.  There* 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  19 

fore  religion,  conceived  as  the  mystic  experience  of 
God  transcendent,  immanent,  and  incarnate,  is  the 
supreme  educational  value,  and  in  maturity  this  relig- 
ious experience  should  consciously  define  itself  as 
theologic  insight.  It  was  this  conviction  which  led 
Froebel  to  insist  that  as  the  age  of  Jesus  demanded 
faith,  so  the  present  age  demands  insight,  and  to 
declare  that  not  only  should  the  process  of  education 
culminate  in  a  conscious  world-view,  but  that  from 
the  beginning  it  should  be  conducted  with  reference 
to  this  world-view,  and  break  a  path  towards  it. 

The  conception  of  religion  which  has  been  presented 
differs  alike  from  the  view  of  those  who  accept  an 
external  revelation  of  divine  reality,  and  those  who 
either  deny  the  existence  of  this  reality,  or  challenge 
man's  ability  to  know  it.  Traditionalism  fails  to  sat- 
isfy man's  intelligence.  Rationalism,  which  ignores  the 
heart  and  imagination,  fails  to  create  the  religious 
experience  which  is  the  indispensable  preliminary  of 
theologic  insight.  Mysticism,  which  tacitly  or  openly 
denies  the  competency  of  the  intellect  to  know  truth, 
and  which  offers  no  criterion  by  which  the  occult  divin- 
ations of  the  subconscious  self  may  be  tested,  must  per- 
petually relapse  into  vagueness  and  self-contradiction. 
It  is  necessary,  on  the  one  hand,  that  eternal  truth  shall 
be  presented  in  the  form  of  a  compelling  insight,  and  on 
the  other,  that  education  shall  provide  a  genetic  devel- 
opment of  the  normative  experiences  through  which 
to  perpetuate  the  Christian  consciousness  which  that 
insight  defines.  In  so  far  as  this  double  requirement 
is  met,  we  may  hope  to  overcome  the  present  disas- 
trous schism  between  a  traditional  creed  formally  pro- 


20  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

fessed,  and  a  secular  life  rooted  in  the  unregenerate 
impulses  which  it  is  the  practical  aim  of  religion  to 
transform. 

THE  SECOND  GREAT    EDUCATIONAL  VALUE:   ETHICS 

In  the  order  of  educational  values  religion  ranks 
first  because,  as  has  been  said,  it  is  the  primary  revela- 
tion of  God  as  an  actual,  and  man  as  a  potential, 
Gliedganzes.  The  second  rank  in  the  hierarchy  of 
educational  values  must  be  assigned  to  ethics.  By  the 
word  ethics  we  designate  "the  whole  of  the  formal 
part  of  life  that  fits  man  to  live  in  the  institutions  of 
civilization."  l  It  is  in  and  through  the  great  institu- 
tions of  the  family,  civil  society,  the  state,  and  the 
church  that  the  individual  learns  practically  to  live 
as  a  Gliedganzes.  In  the  elementary  and  secondary 
schools  the  medium  for  the  study  of  social  institutions 
is  history,  which  is  really  a  study  of  the  development 
of  man's  corporate  selfhood.  In  the  kindergarten  the 
medium  for  a  primary  revelation  of  institutions  is  the 
dramatic  game.2 

Each  one  of  the  great  institutions  of  society  has  a 
special  function  and  a  distinctive  principle.  The  func- 
tion of  the  family  is  nurture,  and  its  principle  is  love. 
The  function  of  civil  society  is  reciprocal  service,  and 
its  principle  is  economy.  The  function  of  the  state  is 

1  Rosenkranz,  Philotophy  of  Education,  p.  150. 

1  This  report  omits  history  in  the  discussion  of  values  because  in 
its  true  sense  it  has  no  place  in  the  kindergarten.  It  may,  however, 
be  claimed  that  the  kindergarten  prepares  in  some  slight  degree  for 
the  study  of  history  by  inducing  children  to  make  periodical  retro- 
spects of  their  own  typical  experiences,  by  stories  of  heroes;  and  by 
celebrating  the  birthdays  of  great  representative  men. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  21 

to  safeguard  liberty,  and  its  principle  is  justice.  The 
function  of  the  church  is  revelation  of  eternal  verities, 
and  its  principle  is  faith.  Love  is  the  emotional  equiva- 
lent of  the  idea  of  the  Gliedganzes.  Economy  is  the 
wise  use  of  the  members  of  a  totality  by  setting  to  each 
the  task  to  which  he  is  by  nature  best  adapted.  Jus- 
tice is  recognition  of  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of 
that  freedom  which  belongs  to  the  individual  in  virtue 
of  his  character  as  actually  member  of  a  whole,  and 
ideally  commensurate  with  that  whole.  Faith  is  the 
spontaneous  leap  of  the  human  spirit  towards  its  own 
Eternal  Ideal. 

Not  only  does  each  human  institution  develop  some 
aspect  of  the  nature  of  man  as  Gliedganzes,  but  each 
institution  also  manifests  a  tendency  towards  expan- 
sion of  which  the  realization  of  the  Gliedganzes  is  the 
impelling  motive.  It  has  frequently  been  observed 
that  the  social  nature  of  self-consciousness  is  adum- 
brated in  the  feeling  of  love.  "Love,"  says  Hegel,  "is 
in  general  the  consciousness  of  the  unity  of  myself 
with  another.  I  am  not  separate  and  isolated,  but  win 
my  self-consciousness  only  by  renouncing  my  inde- 
pendent existence  and  by  knowing  myself  as  unity  of 
myself  with  another  and  another  with  me.  The  first 
element  in  love  is  that  I  will  to  be  no  longer  an  indepen- 
dent self-sufficing  person,  and  that  if  I  were  such  a 
person  I  should  feel  myself  lacking  and  incomplete. 
The  second  element  is  that  I  gain  myself  in  another 
person  in  whom  I  am  recognized  as  he  again  is  in  me." l 
Love  is  the  principle  of  the  family,  and  its  ideal  nature 
as  the  feeling  of  the  Gliedganzes  is  suggested  in  its 
1  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  Right,  S.  W.  Dyde,  p.  165. 


22  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

extension  from  husband  and  wife  to  children,  sons  and 
daughters-in-law,  and  grandchildren.  Beginning  as  a 
union  of  two  persons  it  becomes  a  union  of  many  per- 
sons and  points  for  its  consummation  to  the  union  of 
all  persons. 

In  the  civic  community  we  observe  a  similar  expan- 
sion. The  individual  has  wants  which  he  can  satisfy 
only  by  means  of  other  individuals.  Hence  arises  the 
economic  organization  with  its  principle  of  economy. 
The  expansion  of  this  great  institution  from  the  par- 
ticular community  to  the  nation  and  from  the  nation 
to  the  world  is  too  patent  to  need  illustration.  The 
goal  towards  which  it  aspires  is  the  devotion  of  each 
individual  to  the  service  for  which  he  is  best  fitted  and 
the  dower  of  each  individual  with  the  fruits  of  univer- 
sal toil  and  the  wealth  of  universal  experience. 

The  unity  of  men  in  man  (or  the  ideal  nature  of  man 
as  Gliedganzes)  felt  in  the  family  as  love,  and  embodied 
in  civil  society  as  reciprocal  dependence,  is  recognized 
in  the  state  as  law.  Hegel  has  defined  the  state  as 
"will  that  wills  will."  If  we  conceive  will  as  self- 
determining  energy,  we  shall  have  no  difficulty  in 
understanding  this  definition.  All  actions  that  inter- 
fere with  the  free  exercise  of  self-determination  attack 
will.  All  actions  that  abet  this  exercise  reinforce  will. 
The  ability  to  curtail  self-determining  energy  is  im- 
plied in  its  possession,  and  hence  the  recurrent  spec- 
tacle which  so  terrifies  the  weak-hearted  of  "freedom 
free  to  slay  herself  and  dying  while  men  shout  her 
name."  The  great  aim  of  providential  education 
throughout  the  centuries  is  to  teach  men  to  do  only 
those  deeds  which,  being  in  conformity  with  freedom, 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  23 

enhance  and  diffuse  it.  The  laws  of  a  state  define  the 
substance  of  freedom  so  far  as  any  given  people  has 
learned  to  understand  it.  In  the  eyes  of  the  law  men 
are  not  unique  individuals,  but  persons  participating 
in  a  common  power  of  self-determination.  Thus  con- 
ceiving man  as  a  free  agent  in  the  world  of  reality, 
the  state  metes  to  him  the  reward  or  punishment  of 
his  deeds.  The  treaties  and  alliances  between  nations; 
the  growth  of  international  law;  the  establishment  of 
an  international  tribunal  are  heralds  of  the  great  world- 
union  wherein  each  participant  state  shall  pledge  its 
life,  its  fortune,  and  its  honor  to  secure  equal  and  exact 
justice. 

The  object  of  this  rapid  survey  of  our  secular  insti- 
tutions has  been  to  suggest  that  all  of  them  imply  the 
social  nature  of  conscious  intelligence  and  the  unity  of 
all  beings  participating  in  this  intelligence;  that  is,  the 
nature  of  man  as  Gliedganzes.  In  the  family  this  unity 
is  felt  as  love;  in  civil  society  it  is  embodied  in  recipro- 
cal dependence;  in  the  state  it  is  recognized  by  a  com- 
mon law.  All  of  these  institutions  suggest  a  goal  which 
no  one  of  them  realizes  and  imply  an  origin  which  no 
one  of  them  explains.  The  Christian  church  mystically 
explains  the  unity,  proclaims  the  origin,  and  prophesies 
the  consummation.  It  declares  men  to  be  one  in  virtue 
of  their  derivation  from  a  common  Father;  it  reveals 
to  them  their  generic  ideal  in  a  concretely  presented 
divine  life;  it  proclaims  their  fellowship  in  one  indwell- 
ing spirit;  and  it  holds  before  them  the  hope  of  immor- 
tal citizenship  in  a  cosmic  community,  where  shall  be 
gathered  together  the  intelligent  spirits  not  of  a  single 
world  but  of  all  worlds,  and  where  at  last  each  shall 


84  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

be  in,  through,  and  for  all,  and  all  shall  be  in,  through, 
and  for  each. 

It  is  admitted  by  all  students  of  education  that  the 
standards  for  educational  values  are  the  norms  of  the 
civilization  into  which  the  pupil  is  born,  and  it  must 
now  be  again  insisted  that  the  supreme  norm  of  all 
Western  civilization  is  man's  vision  of  himself  as 
Gliedganzes,  and  that  the  more  or  less  clearly  dis- 
cerned ideal  which  forever  beckons  him  is  that  of 
"membership  in  a  society  of  accordant  free  agents." 
"It  is  at  the  mental  summons  of  this  ideal,"  writes 
Professor  Howison,  "that  the  West  as  a  stadium  in 
historic  progress  emerges  from  the  hoary  and  impas- 
sive East;  and  the  entire  history  of  the  West  as  diver- 
gent from  the  Oriental  spirit,  as  the  scene  of  energetic 
human  improvement,  the  scene  of  the  victory  of  man 
over  nature,  and  over  his  merely  natural  self,  has  its 
controlling  and  explanatory  motive  in  this  ideal  alone. 
It  is  the  very  lifeblood  of  that  more  vigorous  moral 
order  which  is  the  manifest  distinction  of  the  West 
from  the  Orient.  Personal  responsibility  and  its  cor- 
relate of  free  reality,  or  real  freedom,  are  the  whole 
foundation  on  which  our  enlightened  civilization  stands; 
and  the  voice  of  aspiring  and  successful  man  as  he 
lives  and  acts  in  Europe  and  America  speaks  ever  more 
and  more  plainly  the  two  magic  words  of  enthusiasm 
and  of  stability  —  Duty  and  Rights.  But  these  are 
really  the  signals  of  his  citizenship  in  the  ideal  City  of 
God.  By  them  he  proclaims:  We  are  many,  though  in- 
deed one;  there  is  one  nature  in  manifold  persons;  per- 
sonality alone  is  the  measure,  the  sufficing  establishment 
of  reality;  unconditional  reality  alone  is  .sufficient  to 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  25 

the  being  of  persons;  for  that  alone  is  sufficient  to  a 
moral  order,  since  a  moral  order  is  possible  for  none  but 
beings  who  are  mutually  responsible,  and  no  beings  can 
be  responsible  who  do  not  originate  their  own  acts." l 

THE  THIRD  GREAT  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE:  LANGUAGE 

Tested  by  the  standard  of  the  Gliedganzes,  language 
must  be  assigned  the  third  place  in  the  hierarchy  of 
educational  values.  Indeed,  were  we  making  a  study 
of  values  in  the  order  of  their  genesis,  language  would 
perforce  be  promoted  to  the  first  place,  because  without 
speech  there  could  be  no  development  of  corporate 
life.  But  the  order  of  history  is  not  identical  with  the 
order  of  value,  and  language  study,  considered  either 
in  its  formal  aspect  as  training  in  the  habits  of  correct 
speech  and  as  equipment  of  the  individual  with  the 
intellectual  tools  of  reading,  writing,  and  grammar, 
or  in  its  substantial  aspect  as  study  of  literature,  is 
manifestly  subordinate  in  value  to  religion,  to  the 
quickening  of  institutional  ideals,  and  to  the  formation 
of  habits  accordant  with  those  ideals.  On  the  other 
hand,  since  language  is  the  instrument  which  makes 
possible  the  organization  of  human  activity  and  the 
transmission  of  human  experience,  there  can  be  no 
dispute  of  its  claim  to  be  ranked  as  third  in  importance 
of  the  great  educational  values.  The  man  who  lacks 
sufficient  mastery  of  speech  to  make  other  men  under- 
stand what  he  means  will  have  no  co-workers.  He  who 
cannot  understand  other  men's  meanings  will  be  able 
neither  to  aid  nor  to  oppose  them. 

1  The  Conception  of  God,  by  Josiah  Royce,  Joseph  LeConte,  G.  H. 
Howison,  and  Sidney  Edwards  Mezes,  p.  93. 


26  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

Not  only  is  language  the  indispensable  instrument 
of  corporate  life;  it  is  also  the  chief  means  for  the 
expansion  of  personality.  Without  speech  each  man 
would  be  immured  forever  in  the  prison  cell  of  his  own 
nature.  The  man  who  cannot  read  and  write  is  able 
to  expand  his  personality  only  to  the  size  of  those  with 
whom  he  communicates  through  oral  speech,  and  there- 
fore is  condemned  to  remain  provincial  and  temporal. 
He  who  is  able  to  read  and  write,  but  who  fails  to  extend 
his  knowledge  of  language  beyond  a  colloquial  vocabu- 
lary, can  never  enrich  his  personality  with  the  larger 
experience  of  his  own  age,  or  the  great  experience  of 
the  historic  past.  He  who  knows  only  a  single  lan- 
guage must  be  cramped  by  its  limitations  of  vocabulary 
and  structure.  He  who  is  ignorant  of  the  languages  o! 
the  three  great  peoples  who  have  contributed  to  the 
modern  world  its  religion,  its  law,  and  its  artistic  and 
literary  forms,  can  never  fully  understand  his  own  pro- 
cess of  becoming.  In  short,  it  is  through  spoken  and 
written  language  that  the  interchange  of  contempo- 
rary experience  is  possible.  It  is  through  the  written 
and  printed  forms  of  speech  that  the  experience  of  the 
past  is  preserved  and  disseminated.  Without  language 
there  could  be  no  emancipation  of  the  individual  by 
the  vicarious  toil  of  the  race,  no  illumination  of  the 
individual  by  its  vicarious  thought,  no  redemption  of 
the  individual  by  its  vicarious  suffering. 

In  addition  to  its  objective  values  as  the  instrument 
which  makes  corporate  life  possible  and  as  the  chief 
means  of  expanding  human  personality,  language 
study  is  important  because  it  reveals  the  universal 
form  of  our  mental  activity,  and  thereby  admits  us  to 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  27 

some  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  man  as  Gliedganzes. 
Grammar  discovers  that  all  speech  has  the  form  of  a 
judgment.  Every  judgment  is  an  expression  of  that 
essential  act  of  the  Ego  wherein  self-recognition  is 
effected  through  the  positing  and  annulment  of  self- 
separation.  When  for  example,  we  say,  "'The  rose  is; 
it  is  red,  it  is  round,  it  is  fragrant,'  we  separate  what 
belongs  to  the  rose  from  it,  and  place  it  outside  of  it, 
and  then  through  the  act  of  predication  unite  it  again. 
The  fundamental  act  of  self-consciousness,  which  is  a 
self-separation  and  self -identification  united  in  one  act 
of  recognition,  is  repeated  in  all  acts  of  knowing"  and 
embodied  in  the  judgments  which  express  such  acts.1 
The  final  objective  value  of  language  is  that  through 
its  adumbration  of  the  form  of  subject-objectivity  it 
points  us  to  God,  in  whom  alone  that  form  is  completely 
realized.  As  has  been  said,  all  human  speech  has  the 
form  of  a  judgment.  Confining  ourselves  to  judgments 
of  determinate  being,  we  observe  that  in  all  such  judg- 
ments an  individual  is  identified  with  a  class;  for  exam- 
ple, the  rose  is  red;  the  dog  is  a  quadruped;  John  is  a 
man.  Manifestly  the  identity  expressed  in  these  judg- 
ments is  not  true.  John  is  or  may  be  a  very  defective 
specimen  of  the  class  man.  The  dog  is  a  quadruped, 
but  so  are  the  cat  and  the  cow.  The  rose  may  have  red- 
ness, but  it  is  not  identical  with  red,  and  moreover  pos- 
sesses only  one  shade  or  tint  of  red.  Thus  in  one  respect 
it  is  larger,  and  in  another  smaller,  than  the  class  with 
which  it  is  identified.  The  identity  between  subject 
and  predicate  which  the  judgment  expresses  breaks 
down  in  every  concrete  case.  Therefore,  we  are  incited 
1  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,  vol.  i.  pp.  118-19. 


98  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

to  ask,  —  what  does  this  expression  of  identity  mean, 
and  whence  does  it  proceed? 

The  answer  to  this  question  gives  us  new  reverence 
for  language  as  revealer  of  the  form  of  subject-object- 
ivity, characteristic  of  mind,  and  implied  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  Gliedganzes.  In  the  judgment  mind 
imposes  its  own  infinite  form  upon  a  finite  experience. 
The  form  fits  only  eternal  realities.  When  we  identify 
rose  and  redness  we  seek  a  correspondence  not  to  be 
found  in  the  realm  of  sense-perception.  This  lack  of 
correspondence  between  our  general  terms  and  the 
particular  objects  we  subsume  under  them,  has  led 
many  contemporary  thinkers  to  deny  that  truth  in  the 
sense  of  correspondence  exists  at  all.  It  has  led  others 
to  a  profound  conviction  that  mind  itself  is  truth, 
and  that  in  its  form  of  subject-objectivity  as  com- 
pletely realized  in  God,  we  find  at  last  that  perfect  cor- 
respondence between  generic  energy  and  its  product, 
which  nature  and  history  seek,  which  language  in  the 
form  of  the  judgment  affirms,  whose  necessary  im- 
plications are  studied  in  rational  psychology,  and 
whose  outcome  is  the  conception  of  God  as  Absolute 
and  of  man  as  potential  Gliedganzes. 

Besides  its  objective  values,  language  has  a  series 
of  psychologic  values.  In  acquiring  the  power  of 
speech  the  child  acquires  the  power  of  seeing  each 
particular  object  as  member  of  a  class;  becomes  aware 
of  differences  between  the  particular  specimens  of 
the  class;  and  hence  perceives  around  each  object  a 
'  penumbra  of  shining  possibilities.  Seeing  possibilities 
or  unrealized  ideals,  mind  acquires  motives  for  action 
and  develops  will  power.  Finally  energizing  to  realize 


THE  KINDERGAKTEN  29 

these  possibilities,  it  becomes  aware  of  its  own  causa- 
tive power;  for  to  change  a  possibility  into  a  reality  is 
to  cause  to  exist  what  did  not  exist  before.  Hence  in 
learning  to  speak,  the  child  unfolds  will  properly  so- 
called  out  of  blind  desire  and  also  achieves  a  measure 
of  true  self-consciousness. 

A  second  psychologic  value  of  language  is  suggested 
by  the  fact  that  since  it  employs  signs  it  calls  for  dis- 
crimination between  the  sign  and  the  thing  signified, 
and  therefore  involves  a  double  act  of  mental  analysis. 
To  acquire  the  power  of  speech,  words  must  be  recog- 
nized by  external  sense  as  sounds  addressed  to  the  ear, 
and  their  meaning  must  be  recognized  by  internal 
sense  or  introspection.  In  learning  to  read  and  write, 
words  must  be  recognized  as  forms  addressed  to  the  eye; 
these  visible  forms  must  be  identified  with  the  sound 
signs  previously  familiar,  and  finally  the  corresponding 
idea  must  be  called  up  by  thought.  In  the  study  of 
etymology,  words  are  not  only  recognized  as  visible 
forms,  identified  with  sounds  and  interpreted  by 
thought,  but  by  a  deeper  act  of  introspection  identi- 
fied as  parts  of  speech.  Finally,  with  the  study  of  the 
sentence  and  its  construction,  there  is  advance  from  the 
recognition  of  signs  as  expressions  of  particular  mean- 
ings to  the  use  of  signs  as  instruments  for  expressing 
organic  unities  of  thought  by  relating  meanings. 

Thus  far  our  attention  has  been  given  to  language  in 
its  formal  aspect  as  a  system  of  signs  related  to  mean- 
ings. We  must  now  pass  on  to  consider  language  rela- 
tively to  its  content,  or  in  other  words  to  discuss  its 
value  as  embodied  in  literature. 

It  will  be  conceded  without  dispute  that,  aside  from 


80  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

other  values,  literature  is  the  chief  instrumentality 
through  which  man  acquires  distinction  of  thought  and 
speech.  The  language  of  men  and  women  who  do  not 
read  is  prone  to  gyrate  in  a  tedious  round  of  conven- 
tional words  and  phrases.  "Dear  to  me  as  a  God," 
says  Plato,  "shall  be  he  who  can  accurately  divide  and 
define."  Ordinary  men  do  not  make  clear  distinctions 
in  thought,  and  as  a  consequence  their  speech  lacks 
precision.  Whether  in  spoken  or  written  language, 
style  is  simply  the  outward  expression  of  intellect  and 
character.  When  thoughts  are  accurately  defined, 
speech  is  clear.  When  fine  shades  of  thought  and  feeling 
are  inwardly  distinguished,  speech  becomes  delicate, 
subtle,  and  discriminating.  When  each  thought  illum- 
inates and  is  illuminated  by  many  others,  style  be- 
comes comprehensive  and  suggestive.  When  all  par- 
ticular ideas  are  organized  by  a  master  thought,  style 
attains  unity.  When  this  master  thought  is  freedom, 
style  acquires  nobility.  When  the  ideals  of  freedom  have 
been  felt  as  imperatives  and  faithfully  obeyed,  style 
becomes  commanding  and  coercive.  When  ideals  are 
not  only  obeyed,  but  loved,  style  becomes  fervent  and 
glowing.  When  a  man  has  lived  long,  intimately,  and 
lovingly  with  his  thoughts,  they  will  have  associated 
with  themselves  interpreting  natural  images  and  cor- 
respondences. To  see  clearly,  define  precisely,  asso- 
ciate largely,  love  fervently,  believe  with  conviction, 
act  with  fidelity,  and  live  in  constant  communion  with 
one's  own  spirit,  is  the  only  way  to  create  linguistic 
expression  which  is  lucid,  comprehensive,  glowing, 
commanding,  poetic,  and  beautiful.  In  short,  nothing 
but  distinction  of  mind  can  create  distinction  of  speech. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  31 

Literature  is  the  expression  of  distinction  of  mind  in 
ascending  degrees.  To  study  literature  is  to  achieve 
some  measure  of  this  distinction.  The  pupil  becomes 
aware  of  inarticulate  depths  in  himself.  The  feelings 
which  vaguely  stirred  his  heart,  the  thoughts  which 
haunted  his  subconsciousness  are  made  known  to  him. 
As  he  learns  to  understand  himself,  he  begins  also  to 
understand  his  fellows.  If  it  be  true  that  the  proper 
study  of  mankind  is  man;  if  it  be  granted  that  the  most 
practical  knowledge  is  that  which  enables  the  individ- 
ual to  combine  with  his  fellow  men;  then  there  can  be 
no  question  of  the  high  rank  of  literature  in  the  hier- 
archy of  educational  values. 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  that  literature 
helps  the  individual  to  know  himself  and  his  fellow  men 
by  defining  and  illustrating  wide  ranges  of  thought  and 
subtle  intricacies  of  feeling.  It  has,  however,  an  even 
higher  mission,  for  it  is  in  and  through  literature 
that  the  genetic  evolution  of  human  deeds  is  revealed. 
Goethe  has  likened  the  characters  in  a  great  drama  or 
novel  to  watches  with  crystal  cases.  Looking  through 
one  face  of  the  crystal  case,  we  see  the  moving  hands; 
looking  through  the  other,  we  see  the  power  that  moves 
them.  In  our  contact  with  living  men  and  women,  we 
become  aware  of  what  they  do,  and  explain  their  deeds 
by  an  act  of  more  or  less  feeble  introspective  analogy. 
In  studying  the  men  and  women  of  literature,  we  are 
helped  by  the  introspection  of  great  geniuses  who  have 
discovered  in  themselves  the  emotional  and  intellectual 
antecedents  of  all  human  deeds.  "It  may  be  said  in 
general,"  writes  Dr.  Harris  in  Psychologic  Founda- 
tions of  Education,  "  that  a  literary  work  of  art,  a  poem, 


32  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

whether  lyric,  dramatic,  or  epic,  or  a  prose  work  of  art, 
such  as  a  novel  or  a  drama,  reveals  human  nature  by 
showing  the  growth  of  a  feeling  or  sentiment  first  into  a 
conviction  and  then  into  a  deed:  feelings,  thoughts, 
and  deeds  are  thus  connected  in  such  a  way  as  to  explain 
the  complete  genesis  of  human  action."  1 

With  regard  to  the  value  of  this  revelation  the  same 
great  educator  writes  as  follows:  — 

"No  matter  how  well  equipped  we  might  be  as 
mathematicians  or  scientific  experts  of  any  kind,  if  we 
lacked  the  power  of  seeing  this  genesis  of  actions  out 
of  feeling  in  our  fellow  men  and  in  ourselves,  our  lives 
would  become  a  chaos  of  misdirected  endeavor.  We 
never  could  adjust  ourselves  to  our  human  environ- 
ment, we  should  take  offense  where  none  was  intended 
and  make  collisions  with  our  associates;  for  we  should 
first  misunderstand  their  motives;  next,  seize  on  the 
wrong  means  of  persuasion  and  conciliation;  finally, 
end  in  misanthropy.  With  regard  to  ourselves,  we 
should  be  equally  powerless  to  control  our  passions  and 
desires,  not  knowing  whither  they  tended  nor  where 
they  were  to  be  repressed. 

"The  narrow  life  can  be  lived  through  without  much 
knowledge  of  literature.  Intuitive  practice  in  reading 
the  feelings  of  one's  fellows,  and  in  noting  the  effect 
of  the^e  feelings  on  their  actions  which  follow,  fits  the 
individual  for  his  narrow  sphere.  But  there  is  as  much 
difference  between  the  knowledge  of  human  nature 
that  rests  entirely  on  individual  observation  of  the 
people  of  one's  environment  and  that  founded  on  an 
acquaintance  with  the  best  literature  as  there  is  be- 
1  Psychologic  Foundationt  of  Education,  p.  327. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  33 

tween  an  Indian  doctor's  acquaintance  with  plants  and 
the  lore  of  a  skilled  botanist."  l 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  suggest  two  great 
values  of  literature.  It  creates  distinction  of  thought 
and  speech.  It  reveals  the  growth  of  action  and  habit 
out  of  feelings  and  ideas,  and  thereby  helps  men  to 
understand  themselves  and  their  fellows.  A  third  and 
still  higher  value  derives  from  the  fact  that  literature 
portrays  man  as  a  member  of  social  institutions  and 
is  therefore  a  revelation  of  the  Gliedganzes,  or  divine 
human  type,  so  far  as  this  has  been  discovered,  and  also 
a  revelation  of  the  agreements  or  disagreements  of 
individuals  with  this  generic  or  divine  humanity. 

The  theme  of  a  literary  work  of  art  is  usually  an 
attack  of  the  individual  upon  some  one  of  the  great 
human  institutions,  and  the  recoil  of  that  institution 
upon  his  attack.  It  is  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it  por- 
trays collisions  between  the  individual  and  the  social 
whole  that  literature  becomes  an  adequate  revelation 
of  human  nature.  To  quote  Dr.  Harris  once  more: 
"When  at  harmony  with  the  social  environment  the 
individual  does  not  reveal  the  limits  of  his  individuality 
nor  the  all-conquering  might  of  the  institutions  of 
society.  It  is  only  in  the  collisions  between  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  social  order  in  which  he  exists  that  the 
whole  of  human  nature  is  revealed  in  both  its  phases  as 
individual  and  as  social  whole."  2 

No  one  who  has  studied  the  great  world-poets 

1  William  T.  Harris,  The  Educational  Value  of  the  Tragic  as  com- 
pared with  the  Comic  in  Literature  and  Art,  p.  5. 

2  William  T.  Harris,  The  Educational  Value  of  the  Tragic  as  com- 
pared with  the  Comic  in  Literature  and  Art,  p.  60. 


34  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

Homer,  Shakespeare,  Dante,  and  Goethe  can  fail  to  be 
aware  how  largely  he  owes  to  them  knowledge  of  him- 
self, understanding  of  his  fellows,  insight  into  the 
trend  of  human  history,  and  comprehension  of  the 
value  of  human  institutions.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
summon  before  imagination  the  figures  of  Achilles, 
Agamemnon,  Ajax,  Odysseus,  Clytemnestra,  Helen, 
Penelope,  Macbeth,  Hamlet,  Lear,  Desdemona,  Portia, 
Faust,  Mephistopheles,  Wilhelm  Meister,  Lothario, 
Mignon,  and  Natalia  to  assure  ourselves  that  without 
the  concrete  types  of  character  exhibited  in  literature, 
we  should  know  little  either  of  ourselves  or  of  the  men 
and  women  with  whom  life  brings  us  into  relations.  It 
is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  theme  and  structure  of 
each  of  the  great  world-poems  to  realize  how  wonder- 
fully they  interpret  history  and  clarify  the  meaning  of 
human  institutions.  The  Iliad  re-creates  in  its  readers 
the  impulses  out  of  which  Occidental  civilization  was 
born  and  flashes  a  warning  light  upon  that  brittle  in- 
dividualism by  which  alone  it  may  be  wrecked.  The 
Odyssey  portrays  in  a  series  of  poetic  images  the  con- 
scious emergence  of  those  domestic,  social,  national, 
and  religious  ideals  which  the  history  of  the  West  has 
been  one  long  struggle  to  embody.  The  Divine  Comedy 
paints  each  typical  deed  which  man  can  do;  describes 
its  emotional  antecedents;  traces  its  social  conse- 
quences; tests  it  by  the  standard  of  human  solidarity, 
and  points  as  the  goal  of  earthly  existence  to  divine 
life  realized  in  a  cosmic  community.  The  dramas  of 
Shakespeare  show  a  series  of  collisions  between  the 
individual  and  some  ethical  ideal,  and  portray  the 
recoil  of  the  social  whole  upon  his  deeds.  The  last 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  35 

world-poet  advances  unshrinking  into  that  eternal  hell 
where  the  conscious  spirit  is  at  war  with  its  own  form, 
and  writes  in  words  of  flame  the  battle  with  and  victory 
over  agnosticism.  To  study  with  sympathy  and  interior 
comprehension  Goethe's  exhibition  of  Faust  "in  con- 
flict with  himself,  in  conflict  with  family,  society,  and 
state,  and  in  conflict  with  art  and  religion,"  is  to  be 
redeemed  by  vicarious  experience  from  the  torments 
of  intellect  damned  by  the  knowledge  that  it  cannot 
know. 

The  attack  of  the  individual  upon  social  order  and 
the  reaction  of  that  order  upon  the  attack  is  the  per- 
sistent theme  of  literature.  The  principle  underlying 
both  the  attack  and  the  recoil  is  that  of  human  freedom. 
It  is  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  man  has  formal  freedom, 
or  the  power  to  act  as  he  may  choose,  that  the  individual 
is  able  to  make  his  attack  upon  the  social  whole.  It  is 
in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  the  social  whole  has  attained 
some  degree  of  substantial  freedom,  or  vision  of  the 
kinds  of  deeds  which  are  consistent  with  freedom  itself, 
that  it  is  able  to  mete  to  the  individual  just  rewards 
and  penalties.  The  final  revelation  of  literature,  there- 
fore, is  the  revelation  of  human  freedom  with  its  cor- 
relate of  moral  responsibility,  and  so  great  is  its  re- 
spect for  the  freedom  it  celebrates  that  it  leaves  its 
votaries  free  even  to  reject  freedom.  It  wins  by  allure- 
ment, but  never  coerces  by  authority.  It  announces 
no  moral  imperatives,  but  appeals  to  "admiration, 
hope,  and  love;"  stirs  liberating  and  aspiring  impulses 
and  is  content  to  warn  against  evil  by  portraying  its 
ugliness  and  tracing  its  results.  Free  itself  through 
love,  it  dares  to  trust  man's  love  and  freedom,  and  by 


36  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

this  generous  faith  calls  forth  the  energy  through  which 
he  "erects  himself  above  himself." 

The  reader  who  is  able  to  recognize  identity  of 
thought  under  dissimilarity  of  statement  will  need  no 
assurance  of  the  fact  that,  alike  in  its  language,  its 
portrayal  of  concrete  types  of  character,  its  evolution 
of  deeds  out  of  feelings  and  ideas,  its  projection  of  the 
impulses  which  have  determined  the  march  of  history 
and  its  revelation  of  a  social  solidarity  which  guaran- 
tees free  individuality  as  the  goal  of  human  existence, 
literature  is  one  of  the  great  revelations  of  man  as 
Gliedganzes.  It  remains  to  be  said  that  alike  in  poetry 
and  prose  the  art  of  literature  adumbrates  through 
the  sensuous  elements  of  rhythm,  symmetry,  and  har- 
mony, that  form  of  self-consciousness  of  which  the 
Gliedganzes  is  the  final  explication.  The  psychology 
of  these  several  elements  will  be  considered  in  greater 
detail  in  connection  with  the  educational  values  of 
architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  and  music.  Litera- 
ture has  been  treated  in  detachment  from  the  other 
fine  arts  because  of  its  higher  rank  in  the  order  of  edu- 
cational values. 

The  reader  who  has  followed  understandingly  the 
discussion  of  the  three  great  norms  of  religion,  social 
institutions,  and  language  will  be  aware  that  an  effort 
has  been  made  to  set  forth  both  their  objective  or 
practical,  and  their  subjective  or  psychological  value 
as  determined  by  the  common  standard  of  the  Glied- 
ganzes. In  brief  epitome  of  the  thoughts  suggested, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  objective  value  of  the  Christian 
religion  is  that  it  offers  an  eternal  guarantee  for  that 
conception  of  humanity  through  which  the  single 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  37 

spirit  "knows  itself  as  self-active  member  of  a  mani- 
fold system  of  persons,"  and  that  its  psychologic  value 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  stimulates  the  highest  degree  of 
self-activity  by  endowing  each  individual  with  super- 
natural value  through  its  revelation  of  self-conscious- 
ness as  the  form  of  the  divine  first  principle.  From  the 
practical  point  of  view  the  value  of  the  four  great 
human  institutions  is,  that  through  the  family  infant 
humanity  is  protected  and  nurtured;  through  the  or- 
ganization of  civil  society  the  individual  human  being 
is  fed,  clothed,  sheltered,  and  enlarged  by  participa- 
tion in  the  wider  human  experience;  through  the  state 
justice  is  meted  to  responsible  men;  through  the 
corporate  life  of  the  church  altruism  becomes  the  in- 
carnate ideal.  From  the  psychologic  point  of  view 
the  value  of  the  family  lies  in  its  development  of  the 
feeling  of  love;  the  value  of  civil  society,  in  its  substi- 
tution of  reciprocal  service  for  selfish  greed;  the  value 
of  the  state,  in  its  power  so  to  quicken  the  sense  of 
corporate  selfhood  that  for  its  sake  the  individual  is 
ready  to  renounce  his  life;  and  the  value  of  the 
church,  in  its  appeal  to  those  celestial  impulses  of 
faith,  hope,  and  charity  which  are  the  emotional 
equivalents  of  a  compelling  insight  into  the  nature  of 
divine  reality  as  absolute  Gliedganzes. 

Passing  from  the  summarized  values  of  religion  and 
ethics  to  those  of  language,  and  considering  language 
first  in  its  formal  aspect,  we  define  its  psychologic 
values  as  the  gift  of  power  to  see  universals,  and  the 
development  of  introspective  activity  in  deepening 
degrees.  Its  objective  values  are  that  it  is  the  instru- 
ment of  human  combination  and  of  rational  invest!- 


38  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

gation,  and  that  in  its  structure  it  reveals  the  essential 
nature  of  thought.  In  its  aesthetic  aspect  as  literature 
its  objective  merits  are  that  it  assists  human  combina- 
tion through  increasing  man's  power  to  understand  his 
fellows;  that  it  reveals  the  nature  of  human  institu- 
tions and  the  trend  of  history;  and  that  hi  the  formal 
elements  of  rhythm,  symmetry,  and  harmony  it 
enshrines  the  structure  of  reason.  From  the  psycho- 
logic point  of  view  the  merits  of  literature  are  that  by 
its  exact  and  subtle  distinctions  it  makes  men  aware 
of  their  own  inarticulate  depths,  and  confers  upon 
them  some  degree  of  ability  to  define  themselves;  and 
that  by  tracing  the  evolution  of  actions  and  habits 
out  of  feelings  and  ideas,  it  stimulates  introspective 
and  retrospective  activity,  and  makes  men  aware  of 
their  own  process  of  becoming. 

The  three  great  values  considered  lead  all  others  in 
every  stage  of  the  educational  process.  The  remaining 
values  differ  in  their  relative  rank  in  different  stages 
of  that  process.  For  example,  the  relative  ranks  of 
mathematics  and  the  fine  arts  differ  in  the  kinder- 
garten and  the  elementary  school,  as  do  also  the  rela- 
tive ranks  of  the  sciences  and  industries.  In  the  re- 
mainder of  this  report  we  limit  ourselves  to  that  order- 
ing of  educational  values  which,  tested  by  the  standard 
of  the  Gliedganzes,  seems  appropriate  to  the  best  devel- 
opment of  children  between  the  ages  of  four  and  six. 

It  has  been  said  more  than  once  in  this  report  that 
only  a  self-conscious  being  can  be  a  Gliedganzes, 
because  only  in  self-consciousness  can  a  generic 
energy  duplicate  itself  in  its  product.  It  has  also  been 
stated  that  self-consciousness  is  the  realized  form  of 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  39 

self-activity.  The  justification  for  this  statement  is 
that  in  self -consciousness  alone  is  the  self -active  energy 
its  own  environment.  It  follows  that  the  ascending 
stages  of  human  development  may  be  described  as 
ascending  degrees  of  the  realization  of  self-activity, 
in  self -consciousness,  and  it  also  follows  that  the  order 
of  this  ascent  should  determine  the  order  of  education. 
In  short,  self-activity  is  the  principle  of  psychology, 
and  therefore  should  be  the  consciously  accepted 
principle  of  education. 

Granting  that  self -activity  is  the  principle  of  psy- 
chology and  education,  we  set  ourselves  the  intro- 
spective task  of  observing  what  it  does  and  soon  dis- 
cover in  ourselves  one  invariable  method  of  pro- 
cedure. We  act:  then  we  become  conscious  of  as  much 
of  ourselves  as  that  action  reveals;  finally  we  reflect 
on  the  form  of  the  activity  itself  and  thereby  ascend 
to  higher  self-knowledge.  This  method  of  self -activity 
justifies  the  educational  procedure  of  the  kindergarten, 
which  for  children  between  the  ages  of  four  and  six 
assigns  a  higher  value  to  the  practical  and  fine  arts 
than  to  science  and  mathematics.  It  is  through  self- 
expression  in  the  several  forms  of  industry  and  the 
several  forms  of  the  fine  arts  that  the  native  curiosity 
of  children  is  directed  towards  the  simpler  questions 
which  science  asks  and  answers,  and  it  is  through 
the  relations  of  form,  size,  number,  and  proportion  to 
practical  problems  of  construction  that  native  interest 
in  mathematics  is  best  developed.  Hence,  the  fourth 
place  in  the  order  of  educational  values  as  represented 
in  the  kindergarten  must  be  assigned  to  the  practical 
and  fine  arts. 


40  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

THE  FOURTH   GREAT  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE:   THE 
INDUSTRIES  AND   THE   FINE   ARTS 

Having  given  our  reasons  for  assigning  to  the  prac- 
tical and  fine  arts  a  relatively  high  rank  in  the  order 
of  kindergarten  education  we  must  now  consider  their 
more  general  significance  as  two  of  the  great  human 
values.  We  begin  with  the  value  of  industry,  not 
because  we  rank  it  higher  in  the  educational  order 
than  the  value  of  the  fine  arts,  but  because  it  will  be 
easier  to  show  the  superior  value  of  the  latter  after 
consideration  of  the  former. 

The  Value  of  Industry 

In  a  pregnant  passage  of  the  Education  of  Man, 
Froebel  attacks  the  conventional  view  that  the  chief 
end  of  industry  is  the  supply  of  material  needs.  "The 
debasing  illusion,"  he  writes,  "that  man  works,  pro- 
duces, creates  only  in  order  to  preserve  his  body,  in 
order  to  secure  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  may  have 
to  be  endured,  but  should  not  be  diffused  and  propa- 
gated. Primarily  and  in  truth  man  works  that  his 
spiritual,  divine  essence  may  assume  outward  form, 
and  that  thus  he  may  be  enabled  to  recognize  his  own 
spiritual,  divine  nature  and  the  universal  being  of 
God.  Whatever  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  he  obtains 
thereby  comes  to  him  as  an  insignificant  surplus."1 

The  two  distinctive  deeds  of  man  throughout  the 
centuries  are  the  making  over  of  himself  and  the  mak- 
ing over  of  the  world.  The  objective  value  of  industry 
is  that  it  is  the  instrument  through  which  the  trans- 
formation, or  re-creation,  of  the  world  is  effected,  and 
1  The  Education  of  Man,  p.  32. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  41 

the  final  motive  of  industry  is  the  desire  of  the  creative 
divine  spirit  immanent  in  man  to  fulfill  the  purpose 
of  the  same  spirit  immanent  in  nature.  "If,"  writes 
Professor  Miinsterberg,  "we  observe  the  economic 
factors,  wherever  commercial  and  industrial  life  find 
their  proudest  development,  we  must  feel  that  egotistic 
greediness  has  been  on  the  whole  the  small  coin  in  the 
market,  but  that  all  great  transitions  and  develop- 
ments demanded  very  different  impulses.  To  create, 
and  to  create  with  the  whole  soul  for  that  wonderful 
work  of  the  economic  development  is  the  desire  and 
the  ambition  of  the  true  worker.  The  gam  is  estimated 
because  it  indicates  that  the  problem  is  solved,  and 
that  the  conquest  is  completed;  and  that  which  is 
earned  is  used  again  for  new  progress.  To  take  part 
in  the  work,  to  toil  for  the  enterprise,  is  the  joy  of 
life.  In  pioneer  days  it  comes  to  its  most  enthusiastic 
expression.  Young  and  old,  poor  and  rich,  are  joined 
by  the  one  feeling  that  it  is  a  gigantic  work  which 
they  are  to  build  up  together.  To  open  a  land,  to 
make  the  desert  fertile,  to  dig  out  the  treasures  of  the 
soil,  and  to  send  the  works  of  industry  over  the  globe, 
to  awaken  in  the  millions  new  and  ever  new  demands, 
to  satisfy  them  in  a  million  ways  —  that  is  an  inspir- 
ation and  ideal  which  stands,  in  the  feeling  of  the 
worker,  not  lower  than  justice  and  freedom  and  truth 
and  morality.  Where  one  blade  grew  and  two  are  now 
growing,  where  one  railroad  track  went  through  the 
valley  and  now  two  are  built,  where  one  chimney 
smoked  and  now  a  thousand  testify  to  useful  labor, 
there  an  absolutely  valid  progress  has  been  secured 
by  which  the  world  has  become  more  valuable.  And 


42  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

such  a  noble  view  of  economic  life  is  detachable  from 
the  soil  as  well  as  art  and  philosophy;  it  can  spread 
and  has  always  spread  at  the  periods  of  the  golden 
ages  of  industry."1 

The  ideal  described  frees  us  from  the  debasing  illu- 
sion that  industry  is  merely  the  means  by  which  man 
supplies  his  material  needs,  and  defines  it  as  a  more  or 
less  conscious  effort  to  complete  the  desire  for  develop- 
ment in  nature  by  helping  nature  to  fulfill  its  mission 
as  servitor  of  man.  "Economy,"  writes  the  author 
already  quoted,  "is  always  a  system  of  natural  goods 
serving  the  human  community."  Conceiving  nature 
"in  its  purposive  adjustment  as  the  real  content  of 
economy,  the  way  is  open  to  estimate  economy  also 
as  pure  value. "  The  community  which  satisfies  its 
hunger  and  protects  itself  against  the  climate,  or  which, 
many  stages  higher,  gathers  together  the  treasures  of 
the  globe  by  steamers  and  railroads  to  enjoy  life,  ful- 
fills only  personal  purposes.  But  the  nature  which 
nourishes  and  protects  man,  and  in  endless  transforma- 
tion distributes  itself  everywhere  in  order  to  fulfill  the 
human  purpose,  really  offers  an  over-personal  value." 
"Just  as  the  conscious  labor  of  the  arts  alone  can  com- 
plete that  aim  of  the  outer  world  towards  inner  unity 
which  manifests  itself  in  the  beauty  of  nature,  in  the 
same  way  the  desire  for  development  in  nature  com- 
pletes itself  only  in  the  industrial  life."2 

The  thesis  maintained  in  the  passages  cited  is  that 
through  industry  man  satisfies  a  desire  and  realizes  a 
purpose  resident  in  nature.  Reverting  to  the  concep- 

1  MUnaterberg,  Eternal  Value*,  pp.  308-09. 

«  MUnsterberg.  Eternal  Value*,  pp.  310,  311.  316. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  43 

tion  of  the  Gliedganzes  and  reminding  ourselves  of  its 
final  implication,  we  would  complete  this  thesis  by 
defining  matter  as  a  "mode  of  motion  of  spirit,"  and 
by  the  statement  that  in  the  light  of  this  definition 
fulfillment  of  a  desire  resident  in  nature  really  means 
fulfillment  of  the  will  of  God.  It  is  the  spirit  immanent 
in  nature  which  feels  the  desire;  it  is  through  the  self- 
sacrifice  of  that  spirit  in  taking  upon  itself  the  lowly 
form  of  matter  that  man  is  blessed  with  a  world  which 
he  can  re-create  and  thereby  realize  in  himself  the 
image  of  his  creator. 

Epitomizing  this  discussion  of  the  values  of  industry, 
we  may  say  that  through  the  practical  arts  the  pur- 
posive aim  of  nature  is  realized,  and  thereby  the  divine 
will  energetic  in  nature  is  fulfilled.  It  is  not  claimed 
that  a  conscious  awareness  of  and  sympathy  with  this 
will  is  characteristic  of  the  great  majority  of  workers. 
The  claim  is,  rather,  that  industrial  life  should  be  ele- 
vated by  awakening  in  the  minds  of  all  laborers  the 
ideal  of  which  it  is  the  expression.  The  industrial 
world  has  proved  by  the  invention  of  special  vocations 
that  it  understands  one  great  feature  of  economy.  The 
joy  which  comes  to  each  worker  who  has  found  the 
vocation  to  which  he  is  adapted  by  native  gifts  and 
impulses  should  give  him  some  presentiment  of  the 
meaning  of  all  vocations  as  instruments  for  realizing 
ideals  resident  in  nature  and  wakening  to  conscious- 
ness in  the  mind  of  man. 

If  man  be  really  a  Gliedganzes,  —  if  he  can  realize 
that  ideal  only  as  he  becomes  truly  self-knowing,  and 
if  he  can  attain  self-knowledge  only  by  putting  himself 
out  of  himself,  and  then  looking  at  what  he  has  done, 


44  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

—  then,  tested  by  the  standard  we  have  adopted,  the 
practical  arts  have  an  inalienable  right  to  a  place  in 
the  educational  process  because  they  are  among  the 
important  instruments  of  self-revelation.  It  does  not 
fall  within  the  province  of  this  report  to  discuss  the 
agencies  through  which  education  in  the  arts  should 
be  given  to  older  children.  We  limit  ourselves  to  con- 
fession of  our  conviction  that  they  have  a  distinct 
place  and  value  in  the  kindergarten,  and  we  offer  as 
reasons  for  our  conviction  the  two  facts  already 
pointed  out,  that  exercises  in  the  practical  arts  satisfy 
the  native  desire  for  creative  activity  and  meet  the 
psychologic  demand  that  the  mind  shall  express  in 
order  to  know  itself. 

It  is  a  fact,  fraught  with  deeper  meaning  than  many 
of  us  realize,  that  the  practical  arts  tend  constantly 
to  take  on  the  form  of  the  fine  arts.  The  cultivation 
of  the  soil  is  a  practical  art,  but  the  garden,  with  its 
rhythmic  arrangements,  its  contrasts  of  light  and 
shade,  its  accordant  colors,  and  its  consciously  studied 
adjustments  to  the  surrounding  landscape,  is  a  work 
of  fine  art.  Pottery  and  weaving  are  practical  arts, 
but  the  vessels  which  man  shapes  into  fair  proportions 
and  the  rhythmic  and  symmetric  designs  with  which 
he  adorns  his  fabrics  are  works  of  fine  art.  The  rude 
hut  built  for  shelter  against  the  elements  is  a  work  of 
industry,  but  the  forum  and  temple  with  their  harmon- 
ies of  adjustment  are  works  of  fine  art.  This  tendency 
of  the  practical  arts  to  take  on  the  form  of  the  fine 
arts  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  man  puts  himself  into 
whatever  he  does,  and  since  he  is  intrinsically  a  self- 
active  being  "the  shining  of  self -activity "  will  be 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  45 

manifest  in  the  work  of  his  hands.  The  "shining  of 
self-activity,"  as  we  shall  attempt  to  show,  is  beauty, 
and  wherever  man  creates  beauty  he  creates  a  work 
of  fine  art. 

Plato's  definition  of  the  beautiful  as  "the  splendor 
of  the  true"  has  become  so  familiar  that  its  meaning 
has  been  lost.  It  is  only  really  understood  when  inter- 
preted in  the  light  of  his  insight  into  the  self-moved  as 
divine  first  principle  of  the  universe.  Self-movement 
is  another  name  for  self-activity,  and  the  philosopher 
who  recognizes  self-activity  as  final  truth  can  only 
mean  by  the  "splendor  of  the  true"  the  "shining  of 
self -activity "  in  and  through  material  things.  "One 
of  the  good  definitions  of  art,"  writes  Dr.  Harris, 
"describes  it  as  a  means  of  manifesting  the  divine  in 
material  form  for  the  apprehension  of  the  senses  and 
the  reason.  This  definition  makes  art  one  of  the 
three  highest  products  of  the  soul.  The  three  highest 
activities  of  the  soul  deal  with  the  beautiful,  the  good, 
and  the  true.  Religion  deals  with  the  revelation  of  the 
divine  as  good;  art  deals  with  its  manifestation  as  the 
beautiful;  and  philosophy  deals  with  the  definition  of 
the  divine  for  pure  thought."1  Defining  the  divine  as 
realized  self-activity,  we  define  beauty  as  the  manifes- 
tation of  self -activity,  whether  in  the  works  of  nature  or 
of  art. 

The  first  characteristic  of  self-activity  is  that  it  is 
self-originated,  and  therefore  free.  It  follows  that 
objects  are  beautiful  in  so  far  as  they  reveal  freedom. 
We  are  potentially  free  beings  and  denizens  of  a  uni- 
verse which  may  be  best  described  as  a  struggle  to- 
1  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education,  p.  351. 


46  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

wards  freedom.  Any  object  is  beautiful  which  suggests 
either  the  struggle  for  freedom,  the  devout  aspiration 
towards  freedom,  or  the  physical  adumbration  of  free- 
dom. Beautiful  is  the  serene  moonlight  and  its  reflec- 
tion in  the  tossing  sea;  beautiful  the  mountain  which 
aspires  towards  the  sky;  beautiful  the  free  flight  of  the 
bird;  beautiful  the  athlete  who  has  made  of  each  limb 
the  willing  servitor  of  free  energy;  beautiful  the  face 
which  expresses  the  triumph  of  the  free  spirit  over  all 
chaotic  and  warring  impulses. 

Defining  beauty  as  the  shining  of  self-activity  and 
art  as  the  manifestation  of  the  beautiful,  we  conclude 
that  "  material  things  become  works  of  art  when  they 
are  so  disposed  that  they  seem  to  manifest  the  self- 
determination  of  a  living  soul  within  them."1  We 
demand  of  a  work  of  art  that  it  shall  seem  to  be  alive 
both  as  a  whole  and  in  its  parts.  "To  a  sympathetic 
vision,"  writes  Professor  Sturt,  "the  stones  and  beams 
of  the  cathedral  are  severally  instinct  with  life.  The 
strong  straight  pillars  sustain  the  upper  fabric  with  an 
air  of  well-girt  purpose;  the  arches  spring;  the  timbers 
knit  the  roof;  the  buttresses  thrust  sturdily  against  the 
pressure  of  the  roof;  the  spire  soars  into  the  sky.  The 
eye  instinctively  interprets  these  dead  mechanic  things 
in  terms  of  living  power;  and  those  forms  are  grateful 
to  it  which  assist  its  instinctive  interpretation."2  In 
short,  the  unifying  principle  of  art  is  interest  in  a  vital 
whole. 

A  self-activity  must  first  of  all  act.  Its  action,  in  so 
far  as  it  is  self-determined,  is  free.  Hence  beauty,  or 
the  "shining  of  self-activity,"  is,  as  we  have  seen, 

1  Professor  Sturt,  Personal  Idealism,  p.  297.      *  Ibid.,  p.  297. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  47 

primarily  a  revelation  of  freedom.  In  acting,  however, 
an  indivisible  self-activity  necessarily  creates  an  or- 
ganic unity,  or  in  other  words  its  product  is  a  living 
whole  wherein  each  part  is  both  means  and  end  to  all 
other  parts  and  to  the  whole.  If,  therefore,  the  end  of 
art  is  beauty,  and  beauty  is  the  shining  of  self -activity, 
all  works  of  art  must  not  only  reveal  freedom,  but  must 
exhibit  that  organic  character  which  results  whenever 
manifold  parts  or  elements  are  made  instrumental  to 
the  manifestation  of  a  single  meaning  or  purpose.  The 
natural  organism  which  manifests  most  completely 
the  highest  type  of  self-activity  is  the  human  form. 
Hence  the  greatest  works  of  art  take  on  this  form. 
Hence  also  man  tends  to  view  as  quasi-personal, 
"  every  totality  which  subserves  meaning  in  a  way  an- 
alogous to  the  human  body."1 

It  has  been  shown  that  since  man  is  a  self-active 
being  he  will  so  dispose  the  material  things  through 
which  he  expresses  himself  that  they  will  manifest 
freedom  and  exhibit  organic  unity.  There  remains  for 
consideration  the  significant  fact  that  precisely  as  in 
freedom  and  organic  unity  man  celebrates  the  sub- 
stance or  nature  of  self-activity,  so  through  the  manner 
in  which  he  disposes  material  he  exhibits  in  ascending 
degrees  the  structure  of  that  self -consciousness  which 
is  the  realized  form  of  self-activity. 

Analyzing  self-consciousness  we  discover  that  it 
implies,  first,  identity  of  the  self  with  the  self;  second, 
distinction  of  the  self  from  the  self;  third,  the  active 
process  of  mediation  between  the  self  as  subject  and 
the  self  as  object,  whose  outcome  is  the  pervasion  of 
1  Personal  Idealism.,  p.  298. 


48  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

all  the  details  of  thought  and  life  by  a  single  meaning. 
Differently  stated,  in  its  primary  and  most  abstract 
self-recognition  the  Ego  can  only  say  I  am  I;  ascend- 
ing to  higher  self-knowledge,  it  defines  itself  not  only 
as  identical,  but  as  antithetical;  attaining  its  highest 
consciousness,  it  knows  itself  as  a  unity  pervading  a 
manifold  of  distinctions. 

When  we  study  the  history  of  the  fine  arts,  we  be- 
come aware  of  an  order  of  development  correspondent 
to  the  several  phases  of  this  analysis  of  self-conscious- 
ness. In  the  earliest  stage  of  its  history,  the  exclusive 
accent  of  each  art  is  upon  regularity  or  rhythmic  suc- 
cession, and  through  the  tireless  iteration  of  a  single 
sound,  or  a  single  architectural,  graphic,  or  plastic 
element,  the  self  symbolizes  that  identity  which  is  the 
primordial  fact  of  conscious  intelligence.  In  the  next 
higher  stage  of  development,  emphasis  is  placed  upon 
symmetry  which  expresses  not  abstract  sameness,  but 
identity  under  difference.  In  its  highest  forms,  art 
"boldly  discards  both  regularity  and  symmetry  as 
chief  ends,  while  retaining  them  in  subordinate  details, 
and  concentrates  its  effort  upon  that  expression  of  the 
subordination  of  matter  to  the  soul  to  which  has  been 
given  the  name  of  harmony.  The  Apollo  Belvedere,  for 
example,  has  no  symmetry  of  arrangement  in  its  limbs 
and  yet  the  disposition  of  each  limb  suggests  a  differ- 
ent disposition  of  another  in  order  to  accomplish  some 
conscious  act  upon  which  the  mind  of  the  god  is  bent. 
All  is  different,  yet  all  is  united  in  harmony  for  the 
realization  of  one  purpose."  l  In  a  word,  harmony  is 

1  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education,  p.  S56.  I  have  taken  the 
liberty  of  making  some  condensations  and  transpositions. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  49 

that  particular  disposition  of  material  things  through 
which  organic  unity  is  manifested,  and  as  an  art  form 
it  corresponds  to  the  highest  stage  of  self -consciousness, 
which  knows  itself  as  an  identity  pervading  its  own 
differences. 

The  careful  reader  of  this  report  will  have  observed 
that,  while  in  the  discussion  of  literature  attention 
was  concentrated  chiefly  upon  its  content,  the  discus- 
sion of  the  fine  arts  has  concentrated  attention  chiefly 
upon  their  form.  All  that  has  been  said  of  the  form 
of  the  fine  arts  in  general  applies  to  literature,  which 
like  architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  and  music 
reveals  the  distinctive  quality  of  self-activity  which  is 
freedom;  creates  the  organic  unities  which,  alike  in 
life  and  thought,  are  the  integrated  expressions  of 
self -activity,  and  in  the  sensuous  elements  of  rhythm, 
symmetry,  and  harmony  adumbrates  the  structure  of 
self-activity.  Conversely,  all  that  was  said  of  the  con- 
tent of  literature  is  true  of  the  content  of  the  other 
arts,  which  like  literature  portray  the  collisions  of 
passion  with  a  rational  social  order;  the  conflict  of 
lower  and  higher  ethical  ideals  and  the  ascending 
insights  into  Divine  Reality. 

Comparison  between  the  Industries  and  the  Fine  Arts 

Having  considered  the  respective  functions  of  the 
industries  and  fine  arts,  it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that 
in  the  order  of  educational  values  the  latter  take 
precedence  of  the  former.  In  both  the  industries  and 
the  fine  arts  man  transforms  or  re-creates  the  objects 
of  nature;  in  both  the  final  incentive  of  activity  is  self- 
revelation  in  the  interest  of  self-knowledge;  but  the 


50  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

self-revelation  of  man  in  the  fine  arts  is  far  more  com- 
plete than  in  the  practical  arts  because  it  unveils  the 
structural  form  of  reason.  It  is  something  to  build  a 
hut:  more  to  build  a  Parthenon;  something  to  shape  a 
basin:  more  to  model  a  Jove;  something  to  stain  a  floor 
or  dye  a  cloth:  more  to  paint  a  Transfiguration.  It 
means  something  to  the  little  child  to  practice  the 
industries,  but  it  means  far  more  to  receive  an  initia- 
tion into  the  fine  arts. 

The  mystic  Plotinus  says  of  nature  that  she  is  greedy 
of  beholding  herself.  Therefore  she  completes  the 
process  of  her  self-development  in  man.  Translating 
this  thought  into  language  determined  by  the  concep- 
tion of  the  Gliedganzes,  we  affirm  that  the  divine 
spirit  immanent  in  nature  cannot  be  satisfied  until  it 
duplicates  its  own  form  in  a  self-conscious  being.  As 
participant  in  the  divine  form  man  in  turn  will 
be  greedy  of  beholding  himself;  will  aspire  to  create 
images  of  freedom  and  organic  unity ;  and  will  impress 
upon  his  creations  those  ascending  forms  of  order 
which  are  ascending  revelations  of  the  structure  of  self- 
consciousness. 

THE  FIFTH  GREAT  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE:   MATHEMATICS 

Reverting  once  more  to  the  fact  that  this  report 
attempts  the  double  task  of  discussing  the  great 
human  values  in  and  of  themselves  and  of  ordering 
them  in  their  relation  to  the  education  of  children 
between  the  ages  of  four  and  six,  we  remind  our  readers 
that  the  industries  and  fine  arts  were  granted  prece- 
dence over  mathematics  because  of  the  psychologic 
order  of  development.  To  those  who  have  compre- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  51 

bended  that  order  it  should  be  evident  that  through 
creative  exercises  in  the  several  forms  of  the  practical 
and  fine  arts  there  will  be  awakened  in  the  minds  of 
children  a  sense  of  mathematical  relations  and  a 
demand  for  mathematical  aid,  and  that  with  this 
emergence  of  mathematics  into  the  field  of  conscious- 
ness it  should  be  granted  its  own  distinct  place  in  the 
circle  of  educational  activities.  With  this  brief  state- 
ment of  our  reason  for  its  assignment  to  the  fifth  place 
in  the  educational  order  of  the  kindergarten,  we  pass 
on  to  consider  its  several  values  in  the  process  of 
education  as  a  whole. 

The  traditional  course  of  study  in  elementary  and 
secondary  schools  assigns  high  importance  to  mathe- 
matics in  the  several  forms  of  arithmetic,  algebra, 
geometry,  and  trigonometry.  The  practical  value  of 
this  course  in  mathematics  is  that  it  confers  upon 
students  some  degree  of  mastery  of  the  instrument 
through  which  man  theoretically  and  practically  mas- 
ters nature.  Without  mathematics  that  discovery  of 
quantitative  relations  which  is  the  greatest  deed  of 
science  would  be  impossible.  Without  mathematics 
there  could  be  no  adequate  development  of  the  prac- 
tical arts.  To  mathematics  we  owe  our  ability  to  make 
that  estimate  of  the  relative  values  of  different  kinds 
of  labor  upon  which  depends  the  interchange  of  pro- 
ducts, and  to  the  same  great  discipline  we  are  indebted 
in  large  measure  for  development  of  the  machines 
which  are  emancipating  men  from  drudgery  and  com- 
pelling them  to  qualify  themselves  for  higher  forms  of 
economic  activity.  Finally,  it  is  by  the  help  of  mathe- 
matics that  we  estimate  those  quantitative  relations 


52  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

whose  knowledge  is  so  indispensable  to  the  successful 
struggle  with  poverty,  illness,  vice,  and  crime. 

Greater  than  the  utilitarian  values  of  mathematics 
are  its  psychologic  values.  The  first  of  these  is  that, 
through  concentrating  attention  upon  universal  and 
necessary  truths,  mathematics  confers  mental  stability 
and  equipoise.  It  has  been  defined  as  "the  science 
which  draws  necessary  conclusions,"  and  again,  as 
"the  universal  art  apodictic."1  For  whether  mathe- 
matical concepts  have  been  evolved  from  experience 
or  are  free  creations  of  the  mind,  the  relations  between 
these  concepts  are  necessary  and  absolute,  and  hence 
the  study  of  mathematics  is  one  great  instrument  of 
deliverance  from  the  conception  of  truth  as  a  man- 
made  product  which  changes  with  man  in  the  process 
of  interaction  between  himself  and  his  environment. 

The  second  psychologic  value  of  mathematics  is 
that  it  involves  a  transition  from  the  thought  of  each 
object,  as  related  to  an  environment  different  from 
itself,  towards  the  thought  of  self-relation.  The 
mathematical  studies  of  elementary  and  secondary 
schools  deal  with  the  category  of  quantity.  This  cate- 
gory, as  Dr.  Harris  points  out,  involves  a  double 
thought.  "It  first  thinks  thing  and  environment 
(quality)  and  then  thinks  both  as  the  same  in  kind 
or  as  repetitions  of  the  same.  A  thing  becomes  a  unit 
when  it  is  repeated  so  that  it  is  within  an  environment 
of  duplicates  of  itself."  "It  is  manifest  that  we  cannot 
count  objects  except  in  so  far  as  we  abstract  from  their 

1  Definitions  by  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce  and  Professor 
William  Benjamin  Smith,  cited  by  Professor  Keyser  in  his  mono- 
graph on  Mathematics. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  53 

difference.  We  can  count  one,  two,  three  oxen,  but  we 
cannot  say  that  one  ox,  one  sheep,  and  one  tree  are 
three  oxen,  or  three  sheep,  or  three  trees  ;  but  we  can 
say  that  they  are  three  things,  or  three  units  of  any 
class  that  includes  them.  We  must  abstract  from  their 
quality,  —  that  which  distinguishes  them  from  others, 
—  and  go  back  to  a  common  class  in  order  to  count 
them.  The  same  is  true  of  all  extensive  magnitude. 
We  must  regard  the  mass  as  made  up  of  similar  units 
of  extension.  Take  together  a  cubic  yard  of  wood  and 
the  same  amount  of  sand,  and  we  do  not  have  two 
cubic  yards  of  sand  or  of  wood;  but  we  do  have  two 
cubic  yards  of  material  substance.  In  short,  in  order 
to  have  quantity  there  must  be  some  common  genus 
or  species  and  repetitions  of  the  same  individual."1 

Let  us  suppose  for  a  moment  that  there  existed  in 
the  world  but  a  single  specimen  of  each  given  object. 
We  should  then  speak  of  the  house,  the  tree,  the  apple, 
but  we  should  not  speak  of  one  house;  one  tree;  one 
apple;  nor  of  a  house,  a  tree,  or  an  apple.  One  means 
component  unit  of  a  group  of  similar  ones,  or,  in  other 
words,  it  means  one  member  of  a  class  of  objects. 
Membership  in  a  class  implies  common  origin.  The 
members  of  any  true  class  are  simply  a  number  of 
individual  objects  produced  in  the  same  way,  or  for 
the  same  final  purpose.  Broadly  speaking,  productive 
processes  are  of  three  kinds  — the  mechanical  pro- 
cesses of  inorganic  nature,  the  generative  processes  of 
the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds,  and  the  adaptive 
processes  by  which  human  beings  convert  objects  of 
nature  to  their  own  uses.  To  illustrate,  the  first  kind 
1  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education,  pp.  342-43. 


54  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  process  —  sand  is  defined  as  small  grains  of  stone 
derived  from  the  disintegration  of  rocks  ;  snow  is  the 
vapor  of  the  atmosphere  congealed  by  cold  and  aggre- 
gated into  flakes.  Passing  to  the  classes  of  the  organic 
world,  it  may  be  claimed  that  if  evolution  has  proved 
any  one  thing  more  clearly  than  another,  it  is  that  the 
word  class  in  biology  stands  for  a  number  of  plants  or 
animals  having  a  common  ancestry.  Ascending  from 
the  works  of  nature  to  the  works  of  man,  the  same 
conception  of  class  meets  us  as  the  only  satisfactory 
one.  Tables,  for  example,  are  objects  made  by  similar 
processes  for  common  ends,  and  the  same  is  true  of 
houses,  bridges,  railways,  and  all  other  objects  of 
human  production.  They  can  only  be  defined  in  terms 
of  the  purposes  for  which,  and  the  processes  by  which, 
they  are  produced.  In  short,  to  think  a  class  is  to 
think  a  causal  energy  and  its  products. 

It  is  not  contended  that  mathematics  directs  con- 
scious attention  to  classes  conceived  as  generative 
energies  plus  their  products,  but  merely  that  even  in 
its  most  elementary  form  it  involves  withdrawal  from 
the  stage  of  sense  perception  which  thinks  object  and 
environment,  and  a  leap  of  the  mind  towards  the 
thought  of  self-relation. 

The  third  psychologic  value  of  mathematics  is  that 
in  its  ascending  forms  it  demands  constantly  increas- 
ing degrees  of  introspective  activity.  This  demand 
becomes  clear  to  us  when  we  consider  that  all  forms  of 
mathematics  deal  with  ratios,  and  that  the  difference 
between  elementary  and  higher  mathematics  is  that 
the  former  deals  more  with  the  terms  of  the  ratio,  the 
latter  with  the  ratio  itself.  "In  counting,  the  ratio 


THE  KINDERGAETEN  55 

between  any  given  sum  and  its  constituent  units  is 
merely  stated  in  terms  of  the  constituent  unit.  Addi- 
tion, subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division  are 
devices  for  speed  by  using  remembered  countings." 
The  fraction  is  "an  expressed  ratio  of  two  numbers." 
A  further  step  is  taken  in  considering  the  relation  of 
a  single  number  to  itself  as  power  and  root.  Algebra 
"drops  out  the  definite  expression  of  the  two  orders  of 
units  between  which  the  ratio  exists  and  deals  alto- 
gether with  ratios."  Higher  mathematics  deals  with 
the  relations  of  ratio.  It  is  needless  to  do  more  than 
suggest  that  the  advance  from  the  simple  to  the  com- 
plex relations  of  ratios  involves  deepening  degrees  of 
introspective  analysis.1 

Great  as  are  the  utilitarian  and  psychologic  values 
of  mathematics,  they  are  surpassed  by  its  higher 
objective  value  as  an  exploration  and  projection  of  the 
world  of  logic  or  pure  thought.  "It  should  be  borne  in 
mind,"  writes  Professor  Keyser,  "that  there  are  two 
kinds  of  observation:  outer  and  inner,  objective  and 
subjective,  material  and  immaterial,  sensuous  and 
sense-transcending;  observation,  that  is,  of  physical 
things  by  the  bodily  senses,  and  observation,  by  the 
inner  eye,  by  the  subtle  touch  of  the  intellect,  of  the 
entities  that  dwell  in  the  domain  of  logic  and  consti- 
tute the  objects  of  pure  thought.  For,  phrase  it  as  you 
will,  there  is  a  world  peopled  with  ideas,  ensembles, 
propositions,  relations,  and  implications,  in  endless 
variety  and  multiplicity,  in  structure  ranging  from  the 

1  See  Psychologic  Foundations  of -Education,  pp.  344-50,  and  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen,  pp.  242-44.  See  "Development  of 
Mathematics  and  their  Mutual  Relations,"  by  George  H.  Howison, 
Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,  vol.  v,  pp.  144-79. 


56  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

very  simple  to  the  endlessly  intricate  and  complex."1 
"Now,  and  this  is  the  point  I  wish  to  stress,  just 
as  the  astronomer,  the  physicist,  the  geologist,  or  other 
student  of  objective  science  looks  abroad  in  the  world 
of  sense,  so,  not  metaphorically  speaking  but  literally, 
the  mind  of  the  mathematician  goes  forth  into  the 
universe  of  logic  in  quest  of  the  things  that  are  there; 
exploring  the  heights  and  depths  for  facts  —  ideas, 
classes,  relationships,  and  the  rest."2  Finally  the  math- 
ematician not  only  explores  the  inner  world,  but  he 
also  projects  it.  Says  the  author  already  quoted:  "To 
facilitate  eyeless  observation  of  his  sense-transcending 
world,  the  mathematician  invokes  the  aid  of  physical 
diagrams  and  physical  symbols  in  endless  variety  and 
combination;  the  logos  is  thus  drawn  into  a  kind  of 
diagrammatic  and  symbolical  incarnation,  gets  itself 
externalized,  made  flesh,  so  to  speak;  and  it  is  by  at- 
tentive physical  observation  of  this  embodiment,  by 
scrutinizing  the  physical  frame  and  make-up  of  his 
diagrams,  equations,  and  formulae,  by  experimental 
substitutions  in,  and  transformations  of,  them,  by 
noting  what  emerges  as  essential  and  what  as  acci- 
dental, the  things  that  vanish  and  those  that  do  not, 
the  things  that  vary  and  the  things  that  abide  un- 
changed, as  the  transformations  proceed  and  trains 
of  algebraic  evolution  unfold  themselves  to  view  —  it 
is  thus,  by  the  laboratory  method,  by  trial  and  by 
watching,  that  often  the  mathematician  gains  his  best 
insight  into  the  constitution  of  the  invisible  world  thus 
depicted  by  visible  symbols."  * 

1  Cassius  Jackson  Keyser,  Mathematict,  p.  25. 
•  /M-,  pp-  85-86.  »  Ibid. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  57 

It  has  been  shown  that  mathematics  explores  and 
projects  the  facts  and  relations  of  mind.  It  remains  to 
be  said  that  pure  logic  "is  the  theory  of  the  mere  form 
of  thinking";1  or  to  state  the  same  truth  in  terms 
determined  by  the  conception  of  the  Gliedganzes,  pure 
logic  is  an  explication  of  the  mode  of  behavior  of  that 
self-determining  energy  which  achieves  in  self-con- 
sciousness its  perfect  realization.  With  this  insight  we 
define  mathematics  as  an  exploration  and  projection 
not  only  of  the  contents  of  mind,  but  of  the  structure 
of  mind,  and  therefore  as  a  discipline  which  breaks  one 
more  path  towards  the  conception  of  a  completely 
realized  self-consciousness  as  absolute  first  principle 
of  the  universe  and  towards  the  conception  of  man  as 
duplicate  of  the  divine  form. 

THE  SIXTH  GREAT  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE:  SCIENCE 

In  his  Grammar  of  Science,  Professor  Karl  Pearson 
asserts  that  "the  classification  of  facts  and  the  forma- 
tion of  absolute  judgments  upon  the  basis  of  this 
classification,  —  judgments  independent  of  the  idio- 
syncrasies of  the  individual  mind,  —  essentially  sum 
up  the  aim  and  method  of  modern  science."2  On  a 
later  page  this  statement  is  amplified  and  illustrated  as 
follows:  "The  unity  of  all  science  consists  in  its  method, 
not  in  its  material.  The  man  who  classifies  facts  of  any 
kind  whatever,  who  sees  their  mutual  relations  and 
describes  their  sequences,  is  applying  the  scientific 
method  and  is  a  man  of  science.  The  facts  may  belong 

1  Professor  Royce,  The  Problem  of  Truth  in  the  Light  of  Recent 
Research.   For  an  explanation  of  the  "form  of  thinking,"  see  Part 
in  of  this  report. 

2  Karl  Pearson,  Grammar  of  Science,  p.  6. 


58  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

to  the  past  history  of  mankind,  to  the  social  statistics 
of  our  great  cities,  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  most  dis- 
tant stars,  to  the  digestive  organs  of  a  worm  or  to  the 
life  of  a  scarcely  visible  bacillus.  It  is  not  the  facts 
themselves  which  form  science  but  the  method  in 
which  they  are  dealt  with." l 

To  all  who  accept  this  definition  it  must  be  evident 
that  the  category  of  science  is  relativity.  Relativity 
means  dependence.  Since  each  thing  is  relative  to 
every  other  there  is  reciprocal  dependence.  To  truly 
apprehend  any  object  is  to  apprehend  the  totality  of 
its  relations.  Discovery  of  this  totality  of  relations  is 
the  goal  of  science.  That  the  goal  is  an  endlessly  reced- 
ing one  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  it  determines  the 
direction  of  all  scientific  activity. 

The  objective  values  of  science  can  scarcely  be 
overestimated.  This  great  discipline  is  transfiguring 
our  domestic,  economic,  political,  and  religious  creeds. 
It  is  modifying  social  conduct.  It  is  changing  the  treat- 
ment of  disease  and  forcing  a  serious  consideration  of 
all  the  tendencies  of  contemporary  civilization  which 
conspire  to  produce  a  degenerate  and  feeble  race.  It 
has  revolutionized  our  means  of  transit,  indefinitely 
increased  the  agencies  of  intercommunion,  and  proved 
itself  one  of  the  mightiest  of  the  many  influences  now 
cooperating  towards  the  creation  of  that  cosmopolitan 
humanity  wherein  the  ideal  of  the  Gliedganzes  shall 
be  approximately  realized. 

Passing  from  the  objective  to  the  psychologic  values 
of  science,  we  would  mention,  as  the  first  of  these,  that 
science  disciplines  the  mind  to  think  essential  relations. 
1  Karl  Pearson,  Grammar  of  Science,  p.  12. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  59 

It  is  the  great  path  of  escape  from  that  mischievous 
habit  of  arbitrary  analogizing  which  led  the  pigeon  in 
Wonderland  to  brand  Alice  as  a  serpent  because  she 
ate  eggs.  It  is  also  the  instrument  of  emancipation  from 
puerile  superstitions  belonging  to  the  neolithic  plane 
of  intelligence,  yet  still  tyrannizing  the  minds  and  weak- 
ening the  wills  of  the  great  majority  of  human  beings. 

A  second  psychologic  value  of  science  is  that  it  forms 
the  habit  of  suspending  judgment  and  testing  infer- 
ences. It  seeks  no  short  cuts  to  reality.  It  knows  no 
"holy  back  stairs."  It  dares  to  call  its  inferences 
working  hypotheses  and  subjects  them -to  the  most 
rigorous  tests  before  promoting  them  even  to  the  rank 
of  accredited  theories.  The  discipline  of  science  tends, 
therefore,  to  develop  intellects  whose  processes  are 
rigorous  and  whose  conclusions  are  sound. 

The  moral  influence  of  science  is  an  exalted  one.  The 
scientist  is  a  votary  of  the  search  for  truth.  He  is 
prompt  to  surrender  his  dearest  hypothesis  if  it  fail 
to  bear  the  experimental  test.  He  renounces  prejudice 
and  pride  of  opinion.  He  loves  truth  more  than  any 
preconceived  idea  of  truth.  He  is  "an  endless  experi- 
menter with  no  constraining  past  at  his  back"  and  his 
mind  is  plastic  to  the  full  extent  that  the  growth  of 
knowledge  requires. 

The  final  psychologic  value  of  science  is  that  through 
disciplining  the  mind  to  think  essential  relations  it  con- 
fers upon  its  loyal  votaries  the  power  to  "see  by 
wholes."  "  Agassiz,"  writes  Dr.  Harris,  "  saw  the  whole 
fish  in  a  single  scale;  Lyell  could  read  the  history  of 
the  glacial  period  in  a  pebble;  Cuvier  could  see  the 
entire  animal  skeleton  in  one  of  its  bones.  The  spirit 


60  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  specialization  aims  to  exhaust  one  by  one  the 
provinces  of  investigation  with  a  view  to  acquire  this 
power  to  see  totalities."1 

In  the  Second  Part  of  Faust,  Goethe  has  pictured  the 
outcome  of  scientific  specialization  under  the  image 
of  Homunculus,  the  little  man  in  the  bottle.  He  has 
also  pictured  the  aspiration  of  science  in  the  longing  of 
Homunculus  to  break  his  bottle.  He  who  really  sees 
a  relative  whole  will  desire  to  see  the  inclusive  or  abso- 
lute whole.  Hence  science  continually  aims  to  extend 
the  vision  of  totalities  from  mere  limited  provinces  of 
the  world  to  the  world  itself. 

While  the  ultimate  aim  of  science  cannot  be  realized 
in  any  finite  time,  we  must  be  forever  grateful  to  this 
great  discipline  for  the  bridge  it  has  even  now  con- 
structed between  the  conception  of  the  cosmos  as  an 
infinitude  of  particulars  to  the  conception  of  the  cos- 
mos as  an  interrelated  totality.  For,  as  has  been  said, 
the  category  of  science  is  relativity,  and,  as  may  now 
be  added,  universal  relativity  implies  an  independent 
self-related  whole.  If  A  depends  upon  B  and  B  in  turn 
depends  upon  A,  then  both  A  and  B  are  complemental 
elements  of  a  whole  which  includes  and  transcends 
them. 

As  the  supreme  practical  achievement  of  science  is 
the  universal  intercommunion  through  which  cosmo- 
politan humanity  (the  human  Gliedganzes)  shall  be 
created,  so  its  supreme  theoretical  achievement  is  the 
transition  it  makes  from  the  category  of  atomism  to 
that  category  of  self-relation  which  is  an  initial  defini- 
tion of  the  divine  Gliedganzes. 

1  See  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education,  pp.  86,  234. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  61 

The  survey  and  appraisement  of  educational  values 
now  completed  will  have  fulfilled  its  lesser  purpose  if 
it  convinces  readers  of  this  report  that  representatives 
of  the  Froebelian  ideal  have  a  conscious  standard  by 
which  they  seek  to  determine  the  subject-matter  and 
the  goal  of  education.  It  will  have  accomplished  its 
greater  purpose  if  it  commends  the  criterion  accepted 
to  the  judgment  of  candid  students.  It  seems  to  us 
self-evident  that  the  goal  of  education  should  be  a  true 
world-view  and  a  conforming  life.  It  seems  also  self- 
evident  that  if  this  goal  be  accepted,  both  the  subject- 
matter  and  method  of  education  should  be  determined 
by  it.  Finally,  we  are  convinced  that  the  substance 
of  a  true  world-view  is  embodied  in  the  conception 
of  God  as  realized  Gliedganzes,  of  man  as  potential 
Gliedganzes,  and  of  nature  as  a  process  whose  goal  is 
a  being  possessing  the  form  of  self -consciousness. 

In  presenting  the  objective  and  psychologic  values 
of  the  several  great  educational  norms,  we  have  tried 
to  suggest  that  we  conceive  the  supreme  value  of  each 
one  of  them  to  be  the  emancipation  of  the  human  spirit 
by  revelation  of  its  ideal  nature,  and  challenge  to  the 
exercise  of  its  free  activity.  Every  human  value  is  an 
end  to  itself,  not  the  instrument  of  an  end  external  to 
itself.  Every  human  activity  in  so  far  as  it  takes  on 
ideal  form  becomes  akin  to  play, 

We  conceive  creation  as  an  eternal  play  of  the  divine 
spirit.  We  recognize  in  the  plays  of  childhood  a  pri- 
mary revelation  of  the  free  self-activity  of  the  human 
spirit.  We  conceive  all  great  human  values  as  higher 
forms  of  play.  The  true  lover  of  any  great  value  de- 
votes himself  to  it  not  because  of  a  purpose  it  subserves, 


62  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

but  because  of  the  joy  with  which  it  blesses.  The  free 
spirit  seeks  ever  and  alone  its  own  worthy  end  — 
freedom. 

It  remains  to  be  frankly  confessed  that  we  ourselves 
do  not  believe  our  educational  ideal  can  be  realized 
without  regeneration  of  our  entire  social  life.  While 
life  is  pagan,  education  cannot  be  truly  Christian.  We 
hold  that  the  substance  of  Christianity  is  embodied 
in  the  conception  of  the  Gliedganzes.  We  hold  also 
that  in  so  far  as  Occidental  civilization  has  a  distinc- 
tive and  worthy  impulse  it  is  in  the  incarnation  of  this 
ideal.  We  are  convinced  that  the  time  has  come  when 
our  domestic,  social,  economic,  political,  and  religious 
life  should  be  renewed  through  attempts  for  its  more 
adequate  embodiment.  We  believe  that  the  universal 
unrest  of  men  is  the  pledge  of  their  confused  search 
for  a  higher  social  order.  Froebel  was  wont  to  affirm 
that  the  world  needed  renewal  of  life.  Not  until  the 
old  order  has  changed,  making  way  for  the  new,  can 
we  achieve  that  unification  of  life  which  was  his  con- 
fessed aim.  Meanwhile  we  conceive  the  kindergarten 
and  the  kindergarten  normal  school  as  agencies  con- 
spiring to  the  creation  of  that  higher  order  necessary 
to  their  own  adequate  embodiment. 


PART  III 

THE  GENETIC-DEVELOPING  METHOD 

THE  phrase  genetic-developing  method  occurs  for 
the  first  time  in  educational  literature  in  Froebel's 
letter  to  the  philosopher  Krause  written  in  1828. 
The  following  very  general  formula  of  that  method 
had  been  given  in  the  Education  of  Man,  published 
in  1826:  "Do  this  and  observe  what  follows  in  this 
particular  case  from  thy  action  and  to  what  knowl- 
edge it  leads  thee."  l  In  the  letter  to  Krause  this 
formula  is  repeated  and  amplified. 

"The  point  of  departure  for  all  manifestation,  all 
existence,  all  knowledge  and  insight,  is  Doing  or  the 
Deed." 

"From  the  deed,  therefore,  must  true  education 
proceed;  in  the  deed  must  it  germinate;  out  of  the 
deed  must  it  grow.  Upon  the  deed  must  it  found  itself. 
It  proceeds  from  the  living,  creative  deed;  from  the 
creative,  self-observant  deed;  from  the  deed  which  sees 
into  and  through  itself.  All  true  doing  instructs, 
strengthens,  creates,  and  is  itself  creative.  Therefore 
all  true  doing  at  its  culmination  point  reacts  to  protect 
life,  to  sustain  life,  to  nurture  life.  Life,  deed,  recog- 
nition, these  are  the  three  notes  of  a  single  chord.  Now 
the  emphasis  must  be  upon  one  note,  now  upon  an- 
other, now  upon  two  united.  When  they  are  uncon- 
1  Education  of  Man,  p.  5. 


64  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

ditionally  separated,  the  result  is  what  we  see  and  feel 
so  constantly  in  life,  a  struggle  between  life  and  death, 
a  suspension  between  the  two." l 

Thoughtful  kindergartners  are  sometimes  perplexed 
by  an  apparent  contradiction  between  these  descrip- 
tions of  the  genetic-developing  method  and  the  re- 
current statement  of  Froebel  that  the  point  of  depar- 
ture for  all  human  development  is  the  heart.  To  quote 
only  one  of  these  statements,  we  read  in  the  Pedagogics 
of  the  Kindergarten  that  "the  center,  the  real  founda- 
tion, the  starting-point  of  human  development  and 
thus  of  the  child's  development,  is  the  heart  and  emo- 
tions: but  the  training  to  action  and  thought,  the 
corporeal  and  the  spiritual  goes  on  constantly  and  in- 
separably by  the  side  of  it;  and  thought  must  form 
itself  into  action  and  action  resolve  and  clear  itself 
in  thought,  but  both  have  their  roots  in  the  emotional 
nature."  * 

The  German  word  translated  in  this  passage  by  the 
phrase  emotional  nature  is  Gemuth.  As  used  in  the 
writings  of  Froebel,  this  word  always  refers  to  the  un- 
diff  erentiated  totality  of  the  spiritual  nature  and  implies 
the  submergence  of  thought  and  will  in  that  emotional 
awareness  which  is  the  aboriginal  mode  of  conscious- 
ness. We  cannot  feel  without  feeling  about  something, 
neither  can  we  feel  without  a  tendency  to  do  some- 
thing. On  the  other  hand,  feeling  can  only  be  known 
as  it  is  manifested.  When  a  child  smiles,  we  infer  one 
state  of  feeling,  when  he  screams  we  infer  another. 
Running  and  romping  indicate  a  tone  of  feeling  dia- 

1  Am  FroebeT*  Leben,  pp.  141,  42.  Italics  are  mine. 
1  Pedagogic*  of  the  Kindergarten,  p.  42. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  65 

metrically  opposed  to  that  suggested  by  a  quiet  pos- 
ture, meditative  eyes,  and  folded  hands.  In  a  word, 
spontaneous  deeds  imply  and  reveal  emotional  atti- 
tudes and  it  is  in  action  as  revealer  of  Gemiith  that 
education  finds  its  point  of  departure. 

If  education  is  to  begin  with  the  deed,  it  is  mani- 
festly of  great  importance  to  know  the  kind  of  deed 
with  which  it  should  begin.  We  must  be  generous 
enough  to  acquit  Froebel  of  the  foolish  fallacy  that 
it  makes  no  difference  what  one  does  provided  only 
he  is  doing.  The  aim  of  the  kindergarten  is  to  induce 
children  to  do  the  kind  of  deeds  from  which  will  follow 
educative  results.  When  little  children  act  spontane- 
ously, they  act  from  some  impulse.  Whether  such  im- 
pulses be  good  or  bad,  they  are  strengthened  by  ex- 
pression. It  is  the  duty  of  education  to  stimulate  the 
actions  which  express  healthy  impulses,  and  to  restrain 
the  actions  which  express  evil  or  morbid  impulses.  The 
best  way  of  restraining  the  latter  is  by  inciting  the 
former.  The  little  child  vents  his  feeling  of  all  kinds. 
Out  of  these  vented  feelings  we  are  to  select  those 
whose  reactions  will  result  in  forming  the  type  of 
character  implied  in  the  conception  of  man  as  Glied- 
ganzes,  and  by  carefully  considered  incitements  we 
are  to  get  these  selected  deeds  constantly  repeated. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  only  that  first  demand 
of  the  genetic-developing  method  which  may  be  sum- 
marized in  the  statement  that  children  are  to  be  edu- 
cated through  the  incitement  of  selected  forms  of  self- 
expression.  It  should,  however,  be  evident  to  any 
student,  who  gives  serious  attention  to  Froebel's  de- 
scription of  the  method,  that  it  is  very  imperfectly 


66  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

apprehended  if  it  is  limited  to  a  demand  for  self- 
expression  even  in  selected  forms.  This  limitation  has 
reacted  most  injuriously  upon  the  practical  conduct 
of  kindergartens,  and  it  is  therefore  important  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  as  conceived  by  its  originator 
the  genetic  method  demands  not  only  self-expression, 
but  contemplation  both  of  the  product  and  process  of 
self-expression.  It  is  not  satisfied  with  the  deed,  but 
insists  upon  the  self-observant  deed.  It  will  tolerate 
no  lax  and  careless  self -observation,  but  calls  for  the 
self -penetrating  deed;  the  deed  which  sees  into  and 
through  itself.  Mental  activity  in  all  its  forms  in- 
volves introspection,  and  introspection  in  turn  often 
involves  retrospection.  To  the  failure  of  education 
to  guide  introspective  activity  are  due  many  intellec- 
tual perversions  and  moral  catastrophes.  It  is  there- 
fore of  the  highest  importance  that  children  should  be 
helped  to  exercise  sane  introspection  and  wise  retro- 
spection. Let  us  be  bold  and  avow  our  conviction 
that  Froebel's  emphasis  upon  the  "self -penetrating 
deed "  is  no  less  novel  and  original  than  his  emphasis 
upon  the  creative  deed,  and  that,  unless  we  con- 
sciously aim  to  influence  creative,  introspective,  and 
retrospective  activity,  we  do  not  fully  carry  out  the 
genetic  method. 

It  is  easy  to  make  Froebel's  idea  seem  ridiculous 
by  imputing  to  him  approval  of  degrees  of  introspec- 
tion and  ranges  of  retrospection  which  any  sane  person 
would  condemn.  In  a  condensed  statement  it  is  dif- 
ficult not  to  create  misunderstanding.  But  kinder- 
gartners  who  know  the  Mother  Play  will  recognize 
in  its  pictures  and  commentaries  the  delicate  indirect- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  67 

ness  and  wise  restraint  with  which  both  introspective 
and  retrospective  activities  are  incited  and  guided. 
The  "All-Gone"  picture,  for  example,  aims  to  awaken 
in  children  through  varied  illustrations  of  heedlessness 
a  nascent  sense  of  the  nature  and  consequences  of 
their  own  heedless  acts.  The  "Little  Window"  and 
the  "Bridge"  use  visible  analogues  to  quicken  aware- 
ness of  emotional  attitudes.  The  picture  and  com- 
mentary which  interpret  the  "Light-Bird"  make  a 
transition  from  catching  and  holding  with  the  hands 
to  catching  with  the  eyes  and  holding  with  the  mind. 
In  the  commentary  to  the  "Pigeon  House,"  Froebel 
describes  a  mother  who  helps  her  little  child  to  over- 
look the  experience  of  a  single  day.  The  "Children 
on  the  Tower"  is  the  retrospect  of  a  longer  period, 
and  the  "Little  Artist"  a  bold  attempt  to  make  and 
project  a  still  more  comprehensive  survey  of  experi- 
ence. The  kindergartner  who  halts  before  the  ideal 
of  encouraging  some  degree  of  introspective  and  retro- 
spective activity  must  not  only  reject  the  pictures  and 
commentaries  mentioned,  but  admit  her  lack  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  spirit  of  the  entire  Mother  Play. 

It  is  in  their  relationship  to  moral  development  that 
introspective  and  retrospective  activities  are  most  im- 
portant, and  the  chief  demand  of  the  genetic  method  is 
that  a  mass  of  subconscious  experience  shall  not  be 
allowed  to  give  direction  to  life  and  character,  but 
that  from  earliest  childhood  the  free  human  being 
shall  be  helped  to  take  possession  of  himself. 

Within  the  past  two  decades  Froebel's  view  on  this 
subject  has  received  indirect  confirmation  from  an 
unexpected  source.  The  source  referred  to  is  the 


68  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

psycho-analytic  method  of  studying  functional  ner- 
vous disorders.  The  basis  of  this  method  is  described 
as  follows  by  Dr.  James  J.  Putnam,  Professor  of 
Neurology  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School:  "The 
method  rests  on  the  view  that  as  each  person's  mental 
life  goes  on,  and  almost  from  the  moment  of  his  birth, 
he  stores  up  the  experiences,  motives,  and  emotions 
which  are  to  largely  form  the  basis  of  his  character 
and  conduct  by  collecting  them  into  two  groups.  The 
first  of  these  groups  of  experiences  and  emotions  com- 
prises those  which  represent  the  life  we  will  to  lead 
or  which  we  acquiesce  in  —  in  other  words,  the  life 
of  morals  and  conventions;  —  the  other  group  con- 
tains those  experiences  and  emotions  which  we  cannot 
utilize  in  our  willed  life  and  so  strive  to  suppress  and 
hide  even  from  ourselves." 

The  treatment  of  nervous  disorders  based  upon  this 
view  sets  as  its  aim  the  unification  of  the  self  through 
wisely  guided  introspection  and  retrospection.  The 
educational  hint  conveyed  by  the  treatment  is  that 
schism  of  the  self  might  be  prevented  by  helping  chil- 
dren from  the  beginning  of  life  to  face  the  experiences 
they  instinctively  hide  and  suppress. 

No  person  possessing  the  least  degree  of  introspec- 
tion can  fail  to  be  aware  of  a  difference  between  his 
ideal  and  actual  self.  Such  awareness  is,  indeed,  the 
condition  of  moral  progress.  To  be  aware  of  an  ideal 
greater  than  our  present  achievement,  but  towards 
which  we  are  honestly  and  resolutely  pressing,  is, 
however,  a  very  different  thing  from  the  duplicity 
which  either  indulges,  tolerates,  or  hides  an  actual 
self  different  from  the  self  which  we  accept  as  ideal. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  69 

There  must  be  difference  between  vision  and  attain- 
ment, but  there  need  not  be  inner  contradiction  with 
its  correlates  of  hypocrisy  and  despair. 

Every  disciple  of  Froebel  knows  that  he  conceived 
education  as  a  process  for  the  unification  of  life.  He 
consciously  aimed  to  prevent  that  awful  schism  be- 
tween the  better  and  worse  self  which  is  the  hidden 
torment  of  so  many  human  lives.  He  believed  that  j^b 
little  children  might  be  so  watched,  guarded,  and  guided 
as  to  preclude  the  subconscious  accumulation  of  dis- 
astrous tendencies,  and  he  was  sure  that  they  should 
be  helped  to  face  all  their  little  sins  and  follies,  and 


instead  of  hiding  them  from  themselves  and  others 


- 


look  into  and  through  them  and  turn  away  from  them. 
The  word  Sammlung,  translated  by  the  phrase  inner  - 
collectedness,  suggests  the  ideal  of  Froebel  as  it  re- 
lates to  moral  education.  From  the  beginning  of  life 
children  shall  be  helped  to  deliver  themselves  from 
slavery  to  imperative  appetite  and  inordinate  desire. 
They  shall  look  into  and  through  the  acts  into  which 
they  have  been  betrayed  by  heedlessness,  greed,  and 
vanity,  and  through  "the  self -observant  deed"  master 
the  driving  impulse. 

Two  demands  of  the  genetic  method  have  been  con- 
sidered. It  begins  with  the  deed.  The  deed  must  see 
into  and  through  itself.  One  more  explanation  must 
be  made  before  the  method  can  be  understood.  We 
are  told  it  must  move  from  life  and  that  its  outcome 
is  to  protect,  sustain,  and  nurture  life.  To  interpret 
this  statement  it  is  necessary  to  know  the  meanings 
which  for  Froebel  are  stored  up  in  the  word  life.  A 
careful  scrutiny  of  his  use  of  this  term  in  many  differ- 


70  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

ent  contexts  indicates  that  it  means  to  him  experience 
in  its  twofold  aspect,  as,  on  the  one  hand,  a  series  of 
immediately  presented  persons,  objects,  and  events, 
and  on  the  other  as  an  immediate  emotional  response 
to  this  presentation.  The  statement  that  education 
must  move  from  life  means,  therefore,  that  we  must 
seek  our  point  of  contact  with  children  in  immediate 
presentations  and  native  reactions.  The  statement 
that  the  outcome  of  the  genetic  method  is  to  nur- 
ture life  means  that  its  final  issue  is  the  regeneration 
of  the  emotional  nature.  Regeneration  is  effected 
through  selection  from  among  immediate  presenta- 
tions and  native  reactions,  of  those  having  ideal  value, 
and  through  the  creative,  introspective,  and  retrospec- 
tive activities  by  which  these  selected  presentations 
are  assimilated. 

The  writer  of  this  report  halted  long  between  alter- 
native presentations  of  the  genetic  method.  Allured 
by  the  desire  to  present  all  of  its  implications  in  logical 
order,  she  rebelled  against  the  illustrations  which  dis- 
tract attention  from  a  process  of  thought  in  order  to 
clarify  some  one  of  its  stages.  But  the  rebellion  of 
intellect  was  overcome  by  the  constraint  of  sympathy, 
and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  primary  object  of  this 
report  was  to  help  kindergartners  to  clearer  under- 
standing of  the  kindergarten,  it  was  decided  that  the 
simpler  implications  of  the  genetic  method  should  be 
illustrated  before  passing  on  to  consider  those  which 
were  more  difficult.  We  therefore  pause  in  our  exposi- 
tion of  the  method  in  order  to  apply  our  present 
knowledge  of  it  to  the  development  of  the  first  and 
greatest  educational  value  —  the  value  of  Religion. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  71 

THE   GENETIC   METHOD    ILLUSTRATED   THROUGH   THE 
EVOLUTION    OF   RELIGION 

In  the  earlier  part  of  this  report  an  attempt  was 
made  to  discriminate  between  Christian  theology  and 
the  Christian  religion*  The  Christian  religion  em- 
bodies a  mystic  consciousness  of  God  as  transcendent, 
immanent,  and  incarnate.  Christian  theology  inven- 
tories, organizes,  and  interprets  the  data  of  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness,  and  thereby  attains  the  ontologic 
insight  defined  in  the  conception  of  God  as  completely 
objectified  self-consciousness  and  therefore  as  com- 
pletely realized  Gliedganzes.  The  aim  of  Christian 
education  should  be  to  provide  a  genetic  development 
of  the  normative  experience  through  which  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  is  perpetuated.  This  normative 
experience  is  dependence  upon  and  communion  with 
a  God  whom  we  know  as  our  Father;  as  incarnate 
in  a  historic  person;  and  as  a  spirit  energizing  within 
our  own  souls  and  recognized  by  each  one  of  us  as  also 
immanent  and  energetic  in  all  other  souls. 

The  genetic  development  of  this  normative  experi- 
ence implies  its  possession  by  the  person  who  assumes 
the  responsibility  of  religious  education.  She  who 
aspires  to  give  Christian  education  should  first  of  all 
look  honestly,  piercingly,  and  persistently  into  herself, 
in  order  to  assure  herself  of  her  participation  in  the 
Christian  consciousness.  A  few  questions  may  be 
suggested  which  will  blaze  a  path  for  this  indispen- 
sable act  of  introspection. 

Do  you  know  as  a  fact  of  inward  experience  that 
something  speaks  within  you  which  is  greater  than 
yourself?  Does  this  greater  something  sometimes 


72  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

appeal  to  you,  sometimes  warn  you,  sometimes  chide 
you,  sometimes  command,  sometimes  commend  you? 
Are  you  at  peace  when  it  approves  and  at  war  when  it 
condemns?  Do  you  recognize  the  presence  of  this 
greater  something  in  other  people  as  well  as  in  yourself? 
Do  you  know  its  voice  when  it  speaks  in  great  litera- 
ture? Do  you  detect  its  lineaments  when  embodied  in 
great  art?  Do  you  recognize  it  as  the  unseen  power 
that  guides  human  history  and  shapes  human  institu- 
tions? Does  it  reveal  itself  to  you  in  the  speech  of  the 
great  prophets  and  the  love  of  the  saints?  Are  you 
sure  that  in  the  words  of  One  who  speaks  with  author- 
ity you  hear  its  clearest  utterances?  If  you  can  hon- 
estly answer  all  these  questions  in  the  affirmative, 
you  are  a  participant  in  the  religious  experience  whose 
characteristic  mark  is  its  "immanent-transcendence" 
and  whose  final  presupposition  is  defined  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

When  you  have  discovered  in  yourself  this  great 
experience,  ask  yourself  a  second  series  of  questions. 
Do  you  know  that  this  immanent -transcendent  Spirit, 
which  you  will  now  be  ready  to  say  is  trying  to  get 
itself  incarnated  in  you,  has  succeeded  in  incarnating 
itself  more  completely  in  other  people  than  in  your- 
self? Are  the  heroes  who  die  for  great  ideals,  the 
statesmen  who  consecrate  themselves  to  the  upbuild- 
ing of  noble  states,  the  great  missionaries  flaming  with 
love  for  cannibals  and  lepers,  more  perfect  incarna- 
tions of  the  immanent-transcendent  Spirit  than  you 
or  I?  And  finally,  did  this  Spirit  dwell  most  surely, 
incarnate  itself  most  completely,  in  the  great  historic 
personality  from  whom  our  religion  takes  its  name? 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  73 

Whoever  can  answer  these  questions  affirmatively  is 
a  participant  in  that  religious  experience  whose  theo- 
logical presupposition  is  the  Logos  or  Incarnate  Word. 
It  may  seem  strange  that  the  religious  experience 
whose  theological  presupposition  is  the  doctrine  of  an 
Eternal  Father  has  not  been  given  priority  over  the 
experiences  defined  in  the  doctrine  of  an  indwelling 
Spirit  and  an  Eternal  Logos.  Is  not  the  order  of  exper- 
ience from  the  Father  to  the  Son  and  the  Spirit?  It 
is  because  we  answer  this  question  in  the  negative 
that  we  have  ventured  to  present  the  inverse  order. 
Doubtless  we  recognize  a  power  which  smites  our  eyes 
in  the  lightning's  flash  and  our  ears  in  the  thunder's 
roar;  which  shakes  our  souls  with  terror  when  the  storm 
wind  rages  on  land  and  sea,  and  which  hovers  before 
intelligence  in  its  most  general  form  as  the  final  in- 
visible cause  of  all  visible  effects.  But  we  do  not  know 
this  great  First  Cause  as  a  loving  Father  until  we  have 
learned  to  know  the  Spirit  and  the  Son.  It  is  the  still 
small  voice  of  the  divine  within  us  and  the  concrete 
revelation  of  the  divine  in  the  world  which  make  pos- 
sible apprehension  of  the  transcendent  and  eternal 
reality  as  a  loving  Father.  Without  the  sense  of  com- 
munity and  the  historic  manifestation  of  self-sacrifice 
we  may  know  an  omnipotent  cause,  but  we  cannot 
know  a  God  of  love,  who  has  given  us  the  one  perfect 
gift  —  Himself,  and  who  asks  of  us  the  one  adequate 
return  —  ourselves.1 

1  This  statement  must  not  be  construed  to  mean  that  children 
shall  not  begin  to  know  a  Heavenly  Father  until  after  they  have 
learned  to  know  the  Spirit  and  the  Son.  The  analogy  of  human 
fatherhood  may  suggest  Divine  Fatherhood.  But  a  progressive 
Christian  experience  follows  the  order  indicated. 


74  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

If  the  foregoing  description  of  Christian  experience 
be  accepted,  and  if  we  wish  to  apply  the  genetic 
method  to  the  supreme  educational  value,  we  must 
next  seek  the  indigenous  germs  in  the  child's  soul 
from  which  may  be  developed  the  several  conceptions 
of  God  immanent,  God  incarnate,  and  God  trans- 
cendent. To  epitomize  thoughts  which  will  be  illus- 
trated in  the  remainder  of  this  section  of  our  report, 
there  must  be  an  evolution  of  the  knowledge  of  God 
as  indwelling  Spirit  from  the  original  sense  of  com- 
munity; an  evolution  of  God  incarnate  from  concrete 
embodiments  of  the  divine  self  that  slumbers,  dreams, 
and  stirs  in  every  human  soul  and  from  the  struggle 
within  each  soul  between  the  divine  and  the  natural 
self.  Finally,  from  the  native  impulse  to  search  for 
causes  a  path  may  be  broken  towards  the  thought 
of  a  great  first  cause;  and  through  the  reaction  of 
the  sense  of  community  and  the  incarnate  ideal  upon 
this  thought  there  will  develop  the  living  conception 
of  Divine  Fatherhood. 

We  read  in  the  Education  of  Man  that  "  the  feeling 
of  community  first  uniting  the  child  with  mother, 
father,  brothers,  and  sisters,  and  resting  on  a  higher 
spiritual  unity,  to  which  later  on  is  added  the  unmis- 
takable discovery  that  father,  mother,  brothers,  sisters, 
human  beings  in  general,  feel  and  know  themselves 
to  be  in  community  and  unity  with  a  higher  principle, 
with  humanity,  —  with  God,  —  this  feeling  of  com- 
munity is  the  very  first  germ,  the  very  first  beginning  of  all 
true  religious  spirit,  of  all  genuine  yearning  for  unhin- 
dered unification  with  the  eternal,  with  God."  This 
sense  of  community  is  explained  as  a  stirring  of  the 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  75 

immanent  Spirit  and  it  is  added  that  "the  Spirit  that 
lives  and  is  manifest  in  the  finite  has  an  early  though 
dim  feeling  of  its  divine  origin,  and  that  this  vague 
sentiment,  this  exceedingly  misty  feeling,  should  be 
fostered,  strengthened,  nurtured,  and  later  on  raised 
into  clear  consciousness  —  into  full  comprehension."  l 

Let  us  carefully  epitomize  the  several  statements  in 
this  very  suggestive  paragraph. 
I.  The  young  child  has  a  native  feeling  of  commun- 
ity with  others. 
II.  He  discovers  that  all  the  people  who  make  up  his 

little  world  have  communion  with  each  other. 
III.  He  recognizes  likewise  that  they  commune  with 
an  invisible  Person. 

IV.  The  recognized  feeling  of  community  is  the  be- 
ginning of  a  religious  life. 

V.  The  source  of  the  feeling  of  community  is  the 
Divine  Spirit  that  dwells  in  man. 

VI.  One  great  object  of  religious  education  is  to  lift 
the  dim  feeling  of  the  divine  within  the  soul  into 
clear  consciousness. 

Since  the  feeling  of  community  implies  both  actual 
relationships  and  an  emotional  reaction,  it  fulfills 
the  initial  demand  of  the  genetic-developing  method. 
Whenever  this  sense  of  community  is  fostered,  a  pre- 
liminary form  of  religious  education  is  being  given. 
The  point  of  departure  for  such  a  religious  education 
is  to  be  found  in  the  relationship  between  mother  and 
child.  From  this  initial  point  the  sense  of  community  is 
extended  to  other  members  of  the  family,  to  friends, 
to  human  beings  in  general,  and  (in  virtue  of  the  fact 
1  Education  of  Man,  p.  25. 


76  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

that  the  Divine  Spirit  immanent  in  man  is  also  resi- 
dent in  nature)  to  animals,  plants,  and  even  so-called 
inorganic  forces.  It  is  superfluous  to  add  that  no  amount 
of  formal  training  can  enable  a  mother  or  kindergart- 
ner  to  perform  these  nurturing  deeds.  The  Froebelian 
ideal  of  education  demands  the  intellectual,  moral, 
and  emotional  rebirth  of  those  who  attempt  to  carry 
it  out.  The  sense  of  community  can  be  truly  fostered 
only  by  those  who  with  whole  hearts  believe  that  it  is 
the  primal  witness  of  an  indwelling  Divine  Spirit  and 
to  whom  the  one  thing  needful  is  conscious  union  with 
this  Spirit. 

There  is  a  prophecy  current  in  the  Christian  church 
that  its  history  is  to  include  three  great  dispensations, 
of  which  the  latest  shall  be  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit.  Many  signs  indicate  that  we  are  in  the  morning 
twilight  of  this  final  dispensation.  Within  the  visible 
church  there  has  burst  forth  a  fresh  flame  of  missionary 
impulse  and  a  conscious  aspiration  for  unity  among  all 
the  various  creeds  in  Christendom.  In  Asia,  whose  one 
great  deed  seems  to  be  the  creation  of  religions,  there 
has  arisen  a  prophet  whom  his  disciples  describe  as  the 
heart  or  life  center  of  all  the  impulses  towards  brother- 
hood now  circulating  throughout  the  great  human 
organism.  Whatever  may  be  the  errors  or  insufficiencies 
of  socialism,  it  is  another  witness  to  the  prevailing 
power  of  a  deeper  sense  of  community  between  men. 
But  most  significant  of  all  the  omens  of  a  new  dispen- 
sation is  the  undeniable  fact  that  out  of  the  synthesis 
of  many  differing  peoples  in  our  own  country  there  is 
developing  that  "cosmopolitan  affection"  which  is  the 
indispensable  condition  of  a  higher  social  morality. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  77 

These  differing  but  convergent  phenomena  point 
towards  a  world-transforming  process.  The  seemingly 
impossible  mandate,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself,"  is  translating  itself  into  a  native  impulse, 
and  "from  the  depths  of  anonymous  life"  there  is 
emerging  an  "imperious  kindliness"  which  constrains 
to  altruistic  deeds  and  which  will  not  permit  men  to 
be  happy  while  their  fellowmen  are  miserable.1  The 
Froebelian  method  of  education  which  consciously 
begins  the  evolution  of  religion  by  fostering  the  feeling 
of  community  is  therefore  one  expression  of  an  impulse 
which  in  different  forms  is  characteristic  of  our  age  and 
in  which  the  devout  observer  detects  with  awe  the  hand 
of  God  shaping  a  new  historic  era. 

It  is  well  to  begin  religious  education  by  fostering 
that  sense  of  community  which  is  the  pledge  of  human 
brotherhood.  He  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he 
hath  seen,  how  shall  he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not 
seen?  But  brotherhood  is  not  religion,  neither  can  it 
be  maintained  without  religion.  Communion  between 
men  implies  the  generic  unity  of  mankind.  The  generic 
spirit  which  makes  all  men  one  is  the  God  in  man. 
Communion  with  this  indwelling  God  is  prayer. 
Prayer  is  the  characteristic  act  of  religion,  and  the 
chief  aim  of  religious  education  as  a  whole  should  be 
to  foster  the  prayerful  spirit.  The  mere  definition  of 
this  aim  suggests  a  revolution  in  the  prevalent  con- 
ception of  religion  and  in  prevalent  methods  of  reli- 
gious education.  There  is  a  widespread  tendency  to 
conceive  the  essential  act  of  religion  as  an  effort  to 
speed  the  coming  of  an  ideal  civilization,  and  there- 
1  Jane  Ad  Jams,  Newer  Ideals  of  Peace,  pp.  20,  21. 


78  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

fore  to  spend  much  time  running  about  trying  to 
improve  the  world  without  any  clear  idea  in  what  im- 
provement consists.  The  conception  of  religion  de- 
fended in  this  report  holds,  on  the  contrary,  that 
religion  is  a  progressive  tendency  towards  communion 
with  God  transcendent,  God  immanent,  and  God  in- 
carnate; that  such  communion  is  based  upon  com- 
munity of  nature  between  man  and  God,  and  that  its 
issue  is  a  serene  life  whose  outward  deeds  are  its 
natural  and  spontaneous  self-expression. 

It  may  be  because  our  conception  of  prayer  has 
remained  savage  and  heathen  that  we  find  it  so  dif- 
ficult to  enter  sympathetically  into  the  idea  of  its  cen- 
tral position  in  a  truly  Christian  experience.  To  limit 
prayer  to  petition,  and  above  all  to  petition  for  material 
and  transient  goods,  is  really  to  deny  Christianity, 
and  there  can  scarcely  be  a  grosser  caricature  of 
religion  than  that  which  conceives  God  as  a  vast 
reservoir  of  power  to  be  drawn  on  at  our  will  and  for 
our  benefit.  The  aim  of  religious  communion  is  not  to 
prostitute  divine  energy  to  human  whim,  but  to  regen- 
erate human  intellects,  consecrate  human  wills,  and 
renew  human  hearts  by  making  them  participant  in 
divine  purposes.  To  fix  thought  on  the  eternal  is 
prayer.  From  this  highest  consecration  of  our  power 
of  voluntary  attention  spring  repentance  for  sin  and 
gratitude  for  the  great  gift  of  being,  ceaseless  aspira- 
tion towards  the  source  of  being,  trust  in  divine  good- 
ness, and  the  spontaneous  leap  of  partial  towards 
perfect  love. 

If  a  mother  be  herself  religious,  or  in  other  words  if 
her  life  be  lived  in  constant  dependence  upon  God,  she 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  79 

will  pray.  The  reaction  of  her  prayer  upon  the  mind  of 
her  child  is  his  second  forward  step  in  the  religious  life. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  actual  religion  as  distinct 
from  its  germinal  cell  (the  sense  of  community)  begins 
with  the  child's  feeling  that  the  one  person  upon  whom 
he  is  dependent  depends  in  her  turn  upon  an  invisible 
power.  "It  is,  therefore,"  writes  Froebel,  "not  only  a 
touching  sight  for  the  quiet  and  unseen  observer,  but 
productive  of  eternal  blessings  for  the  child,  when  the 
mother  lays  the  sleeping  infant  upon  his  couch  with 
an  intensely  loving  look  to  their  Heavenly  Father, 
praying  Him  for  protection  and  loving  care." 

"It  is  not  only  touching,  and  greatly  pleasing,  but 
highly  important  and  full  of  blessings  for  the  whole 
present  and  later  life  of  the  child,  when  the  mother, 
with  a  look  full  of  joy  and  gratitude  towards  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  thanking  him  for  rest  and  new 
vigor,  lifts  from  his  couch  the  awakened  child,  radiant 
with  joyful  smiles ;  nay,  for  the  whole  time  of  the  related 
life  between  mother  and  child  this  exerts  the  happiest 
influence.  Therefore,  the  true  mother  is  loath  to  let 
another  put  the  sleeping  child  to  bed,  or  to  take  from  it 
the  awakened  child."1 

After  a  while  the  child  who  has  seen  his  mother  pray 
will  wish  to  pray  himself.  One  of  the  most  remark- 
able songs  and  commentaries  in  the  Mother  Play  shows 
with  what  tender  and  delicate  indirectness  this  nascent 
and  only  semi-conscious  desire  should  be  met.  Its  first 
suggestion  is  that  sacred  acts  must  not  be  intruded 
upon  secular  moments,  and  therefore  that  we  must 
await  some  signal  from  the  child  himself  before  we 
1  Education  of  Man,  pp.  25,  26. 


80  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

venture  to  incline  his  heart  towards  prayer.  The  song 
and  picture  referred  to  presuppose  that  it  is  evening, 
and  that  the  little  one  who  all  day  long  has  been  busy 
with  many  things  will  soon  be  laid  to  sleep.  His  quiet 
posture,  clasped  hands,  and  introspective  eyes  assure 
us  of  the  meditative  moment,  and  apprize  us  that  from 
fragmentary  thoughts,  feelings,  and  deeds  he  has  with- 
drawn into  the  wholeness  of  his  central  selfhood. 
Gently  and  carefully  the  mother  seeks  to  quicken  a 
vague  awareness  of  what  is  passing  within  him.  She 
tells  him  a  story  of  little  children  and  all  they  did 
in  one  happy  day.  She  shows  him  a  picture  of  these 
happy  children,  tired  and  sinking  into  sleep.  She 
clasps  her  own  hands  to  represent  the  sleeping  children 
and  sings  the  prayer  they  said  before  they  slept.  The 
little  child's  own  intertwined  fingers  begin  to  mean 
something  to  him.  They  are  children  who  played  as 
he  has  played,  who  were  tired  as  he  is  tired,  who  are 
sleeping  as  he  would  sleep,  and  who  before  sleeping 
prayed  as  now  he  feels  he  would  like  to  pray. 

The  sympathetic  reader  is  doubtless  already  aware 
that  with  the  experience  just  described  we  have  ad- 
vanced to  that  phase  of  the  genetic  method  which 
demands  introspection  and  retrospection.  The  child 
has  been  helped  to  look  into  himself.  He  has  been 
helped  to  take  a  backward  glance  over  a  single  day. 
Finally,  he  has  been  helped  to  discover  a  desire  stirring 
faintly  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness. 

We  have  considered  the  three  primary  stages  in  the 
evolution  of  Christian  experience  and  have  sought  to 
show  that  their  root  is  the  native  sense  oi  community; 
their  blossom  a  nascent  longing  to  pray,  made  aware 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  81 

of  itself;  and  their  final  presupposition  the  God  imma- 
nent in,  and  yet  transcendent  of  every  human  soul. 
We  must  now  consider  that  second  path  of  approach 
towards  the  Christian  consciousness  which  begins  with 
recognition  of  our  own  double  selfhood  and  whose 
climax  is  the  vision  of  God  incarnate. 

This  report  presupposes  in  its  readers  awareness  of 
an  ideal  self  which  is  different  from  the  actual  self;  of  a 
universal  self  which  is  different  from  the  particular 
self;  of  a  permanent  self  different  from  and  transcend- 
ent of  the  series  of  selves  created  and  outgrown.  Only 
those  who  know  their  own  double  selfhood  can  under- 
stand that  its  discovery  creates  the  most  dramatic 
moment  in  the  life  of  a  child.  It  is  a  moment  fraught 
with  fate,  and  there  is  no  crisis  of  experience  demand- 
ing clearer  insight  in  order  to  meet  it  with  a  redeem- 
ing response.  The  child  has  discriminated  between  his 
actual  self  and  an  ideal  self.  The  self  he  recognizes  as 
ideal  is  the  one  he  has  learned  to  define  through  the 
reaction  of  those  about  him  upon  his  deeds.  What 
they  praise  he  has  begun  to  call  good,  what  they 
blame  he  has  begun  to  regard  as  evil.  Three  great 
dangers  threaten  him.  Through  desire  for  social  ap- 
proval he  may  try  to  seem  what  he  is  not  and  so  fall 
into  duplicity.  Duplicity  in  himself  will  make  him 
suspect  duplicity  in  others  and  betray  him  into  de- 
basing views  of  human  nature.  Finally,  he  will  hide 
from  himself  as  well  as  others  the  acts  and  feelings 
which  contradict  the  accepted  ideal  self  and  thereby 
will  distribute  all  his  experiences  into  two  mutually 
repellent  groups.  In  short,  while  vision  of  an  ideal 
self  is  the  condition  of  moral  development,  it  brings 


82  .THE  KINDERGARTEN 

with  it  the  possibility  of  a  disastrous  schism  in  the 
soul. 

Spiritually  naked  and  unashamed  the  young  child 
has  wandered  hitherto  in  the  Eden  of  his  home.  Now, 
to  him  as  to  his  great  forbear,  there  is  revealed  what 
he  should  and  should  not  do.  Betrayed  chiefly  by 
heedlessness,  temper,  and  lust  into  actions  which  con- 
tradict the  revealed  ideal,  he  begins  that  terrible  game 
of  hide-and-seek  which  often  continues  throughout 
life.  He  hides  through  fear;  he  hides  through  shame; 
he  hides  through  vanity;  he  hides  from  mother  and 
father,  from  brothers  and  sisters,  from  the  world,  from 
God,  and  from  himself.  He  sews  for  himself  concealing 
garments  of  hypocrisy;  he  skulks  in  caves  of  hidden 
motive;  he  parries  attack  with  keen-edged  blades  of 
sophistry;  he  retreats  into  solitary  fastnesses  of  pride. 
He  will  not  be  known  and  he  will  not  know  himself. 
Worst  of  all,  he  hides  under  masks  of  conscience,  blind 
to  the  fact  that  his  imperious  ought  is  nothing  but  an 
enthroned  passion  or  a  crowned  ambition.  Hiding  and 
hidden,  he  steals  through  life  haunted  forever  by  pre- 
monitions of  the  great  unmasking  which  awaits  every 
soul  made  in  the  image  of  God. 

It  argues  something  very  wrong  in  our  education  of 
children  that  transition  from  the  unmoral  to  the  moral 
life  should  so  often  make  them  worse  instead  of  bet- 
ter, and  perhaps  the  most  important  question  which  a 
mother  or  kindergartner  can  ask  herself  is:  How  shall 
I  help  the  child  to  see  an  ideal  and  guide  himself  by 
conscious  choices  of  the  will,  without  betraying  him 
into  hypocrisy  and  falsehood  and  creating  in  him  a 
contradiction  so  great  that  he  will  never  be  able  to 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  83 

resolve  it?  As  has  been  said,  progress  in  the  moral  life 
demands  vision  of  an  ideal  beyond  present  attainment. 
An  unattained  ideal  must  not  only  beckon  but  con- 
demn. The  question  to  be  solved  is :  How  shall  we  con- 
duct the  young  soul  safely  through  the  dangers  inevit- 
ably associated  with  self-condemnation  and  thus  pre- 
vent a  necessary  schism  from  deepening  into  an  in- 
soluble contradiction? 

We  know  the  answer  made  by  religion  to  this  ques- 
tion when  it  was  asked  by  man  in  the  childhood  of  the 
human  race.  In  that  mystical  account  of  man's  first 
discovery  of  his  double  selfhood  which  reaches  into  the 
profoundest  depths  of  the  soul,  we  read  that  contempo- 
rary with  the  revelation  of  sin  was  the  promise  of  a 
redeemer.  A  child  born  of  woman  should  bruise  the 
serpent's  head. 

With  the  deepening  of  moral  consciousness  came  the 
conviction  that  the  redeemer  from  sin  must  be  born 
not  only  of  woman  but  of  God,  or,  translating  this 
mystic  intuition  into  terms  of  conscious  intelligence,  it 
was  felt  that  there  could  be  no  deliverance  of  man  from 
the  curse  of  sin,  no  attainment  by  man  of  the  ideal  self, 
no  reconciliation  of  man  with  the  cosmic  order,  unless 
generic  humanity  was  divine  humanity,  and  it  were 
possible  that  God  immanent  should  become  God 
incarnate. 

The  redemptive  power  of  this  insight  derives  from 
the  fact  that  the  ideal  revealed  is  one  of  perfect  love. 
The  God  who  cares  so  much  for  men  that  He  cannot 
be  satisfied  until  He  has  given  them  all  He  has  and  all 
He  is,  is  not  a  God  before  whom  any  soul  need  shrink 
in  cowardly  terror  even  when  smitten  by  the  sense  of 


84  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

sin.  He  is  not  a  God  from  whom  man  needs  to  hide. 
Rather  is  He  a  God  towards  whom  every  sinning  soul 
may  run  for  succor.  Emerson  proved  his  interior 
vision  of  Christianity  when  he  wrote  — 

"  Fear  not,  then,  them  child  infirm, 
There's  no  god  dare  wrong  a  worm"; 

and  Browning  showed  the  boldness  born  of  faith  that 
"sees  into  and  through  itself"  when  he  dared  affirm 

that 

"A  loving  worm  within  its  clod. 
Were  diviner  than  a  loveless  God." 

In  the  light  of  this  revelation  of  religion  we  discern 
an  answer  to  the  question  how  a  young  soul  may  be 
safely  conducted  through  the  dangers  incident  to  the 
dawning  vision  of  an  ideal.  This  answer  is  that  when 
we  reveal  the  true  ideal,  which  is  love,  the  dangers 
vanish.  The  revelation  is  first  made  through  the  atti- 
tude of  the  mother.  The  child  who  trusts  his  mother's 
love  will  not  hide  his  naughtiness,  but  run  to  her  to 
be  delivered  from  it.  Her  response  to  his  appeal  must 
reveal  love  as  both  pitiful  and  imperious.  No  mother 
does  redeeming  work  unless  she  makes  her  child  feel 
that  the  demands  of  love  are  as  inexorable  as  its  for- 
giveness is  assured.  Love  implies  either  actual  or 
potential  worth  in  its  object.  It  challenges  to  perfec- 
tion because,  it  believes  perfection  possible.  It  can 
forgive  so  long  as  forgiveness  is  needed,  because  it 
knows  that  this  possibility,  however  delayed,  can  never 
be  lost.  Love  is,  therefore,  the  ever  renewed  confession 
of  faith  in  divine  immanence,  the  ever  renewed  hope  of 
divine  incarnation. 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  describe  that  crisis 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  85 

of  experience  marked  by  the  birth  of  conscience.  It 
has  been  shown  to  involve  four  phases.  The  child  has 
recognized  his  own  double  selfhood.  He  has  recog- 
nized the  double  selfhood  of  those  around  him.  He 
has  discerned  a  coercive  ideal  hovering  over  himself 
and  others.  He  has  violated  that  ideal  and  is  smitten 
with  the  sense  of  sin.  The  mother  has  responded  to 
his  troubled  conscience  with  a  love  which  suffers  while 
it  delivers.  Is  it  only  a  mother  who  can  thus  meet  and 
overcome  evil,  or  may  it  be  that  her  redeeming  love  is 
but  a  reflection  of  the  redeeming  love  of  God? 

The  moment  has  come  for  the  revelation  of  a  deliv- 
erer, but  this  revelation  must  be  very  gentle  and  indi- 
rect. For  a  revelation  which  outruns  need  will  create 
skepticism,  and  as  every  premature  disclosure  of  good 
is  the  ancestor  of  evil,  so  every  premature  disclosure 
of  truth  is  the  ancestor  of  a  doubt  or  a  denial. 

The  world  literature  of  the  childhood  of  the  race 
abounds  with  stories  which  meet  the  needs  of  the 
child  in  this  most  momentous  crisis  of  his  history. 
Wide-eyed  he  will  listen  to  tales  of  the  beautiful 
princess  held  captive  by  a  wicked  giant,  and  of  the 
hero  who  journeys  far,  suffers  long,  and  combats 
mightily  for  her  deliverance.  Sometimes  he  will  iden- 
tify himself  with  the  wretched  captive,  sometimes  with 
the  conquering  hero,  because  in  very  deed  he  is  both, 
and  in  his  own  soul  as  battle-ground  must  meet  and 
slay  himself  as  foe,  and  free  himself  as  captive  held  in 
chains.  Later  he  will  be  stirred  with  strange  surmises 
as  he  hears  the  great  myth  of  Herakles  or  listens  to  the 
story  of  Achilles  renouncing  wrath  and  freely  accept- 
ing death  for  the  sake  of  his  cause.  But  the  question 


86  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

which  these  and  kindred  tales  may  help  to  quicken  in 
his  soul  will  be  fully  answered  only  by  the  legends  and 
history  of  the  race  elected  to  answer  it  for  all  man- 
kind. The  myth  of  Eden  interprets  the  first  act  in  the 
history  of  his  soul.  By  the  free  decision  of  Moses  to 
forsake  a  palace  and  throw  in  his  lot  with  slaves,  new 
ardors  are  inspired  and  new  horizons  won.  At  last  the 
revelation  of  the  Cross  sets  the  seal  of  eternity  upon 
time  and  the  seal  of  the  cosmic  order  upon  the  noblest 
impulse  of  man.  Then  is  the  final  ardor  quickened  and 
the  infinite  horizon  spread. 

When  we  attempt  to  state  Christian  experience  in  its 
simplest  terms,  we  say  it  is  assurance  of  the  fact  that 
looking  into  the  face  of  Jesus  we  behold  the  face  of 
God.  Christianity  is  worship  of  a  God  whose  character 
is  like  the  character  of  Jesus.  Jesus  so  loved  men  that 
he  gladly  embraced  death  in  order  to  save  them.  If 
God  be  like  him  his  eternal  life  is  an  eternal  cross  and 
passion.  It  is  this  conception  which  defines  Christian 
faith.  It  is  the  command,  Take  up  thy  cross  and  follow 
me,  which  defines  Christian  duty.  The  trouble  with 
our  moral  conventions  is  that  they  have  not  recognized 
the  centrality  of  loving-kindness.  It  is  only  as  every 
duty  is  conceived  as  derivative  from  and  related  to  this 
supreme  obligation  that  it  can  be  enjoined  without 
creating  that  deplorable  schism  which  makes  so  many 
men  not  one  person,  but  two  or  even  many  persons. 

A  genetic  development  of  ideal  human  character  is 
possible  because  some  degree  of  love  is  present  in  all 
men  in  the  form  of  immediate  impulse.  Moral  educa- 
tion should  be  centered  in  the  effort  to  abet  the  native 
struggle  of  this  divine  impulse  against  all  the  impulses 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  87 

which  contradict  it.  Religious  education  should  be 
centered  in  the  effort  to  reveal  God  as  love.  The  con- 
crete revelation  of  love  is  made  in  the  Cross.  Without 
the  sacrifice  of  Calvary,  Jesus  might  have  been  the 
world's  greatest  teacher  and  prophet.  With  it,  he 
becomes  the  world's  Redeemer,  a  figure  unique  in 
history  and  resplendent  with  the  glory  of  eternity.  In 
the  temporal  world,  Love  hangs  forever  on  the  Cross; 
in  the  Eternal  world,  it  is  enthroned  upon  the  seat  of 
judgment  and  summons  all  men  to  its  dread  assize. 
In  the  order  of  time  there  is  no  last  judgment  for  any 
human  soul,  but  in  the  permanent  order  of  the  spiritual 
universe  self-sacrificing  love  is  the  ultimate  criterion 
of  character,  and  men  are  in  hell  or  heaven  as  it  repels 
or  attracts  them. 

There  is  a  widespread  and  uneasy  sense  that  some- 
thing is  wrong  with  our  moral  conventions.  Such  un- 
easiness indicates  that  the  collective  mind  is  in  travail 
and  a  nobler  social  conscience  about  to  be  born.  Con- 
ventions are  agreements  which  embody  the  results  of 
collective  experience.  It  is  because  through  that  ex- 
perience for  nearly  two  thousand  years  has  been  work- 
ing the  leaven  of  the  Christian  ideal  that  our  domestic, 
economic,  national,  and  religious  conventions  are  now 
being  challenged,  and  that  the  hearts  of  men  every- 
where are  crying  for  renewal  of  life.  The  Cross  is  the 
sacred  symbol  of  an  infinite  and  eternal  Reality. 
Eternal  Reality  is  what  in  human  life  we  call  the  un- 
realized ideal.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  two  thousand 
years  should  be  insufficient  for  the  realization  of  an 
ideal  that  is  infinite.  The  miracle  is  rather  that  in  the 
paltry  period  of  two  thousand  years  it  should  be  ac- 


88  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

cepted  by  so  many  souls  as  a  moral  imperative  and 
that  the  conscience  of  the  Occidental  world  should  be 
convincing  itself  of  sin  and  panting  for  deliverance 
from  the  baser  instincts  inherited  from  brute  and 
savage  ancestors. 

We  have  traced  two  aspects  of  that  genetic-develop- 
ing experience  through  which  an  approach  is  made 
towards  the  Christian  conception  of  God.  There  re- 
mains for  consideration  the  conception  of  God  trans- 
cendent, and  its  approach  through  ascent  from  effects 
to  causes  and  from  all  secondary  causes  to  a  primal 
cause. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  human  intellect  that  it 
begins  at  once  to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  immediate 
aspect  of  experience  and  to  explain  all  that  is  percept- 
ible by  the  senses  as  effects  of  outlying  causes.  This 
search  for  causes  is  itself  explained  by  the  fact  that 
being  a  causative  being  man  knows  himself  as  producer 
of  objects  and  acts,  and  therefore  divines  an  analogous 
origin  of  all  things  and  events.  Furthermore,  he  knows 
himself  as  the  single  cause  of  a  related  multiplicity  of 
acts,  and  projects  this  self-knowledge  as  an  intuition 
of  one  great  primal  cause. 

The  characteristic  attribute  of  a  great  first  cause  is 
sovereignty.  As  God  immanent  is  the  pledge  of  cosmic 
fellowship  and  God  incarnate  the  revelation  of  cosmic 
love,  so  God  conceived  as  transcendent  or  as  primal 
cause  gives  assurance  of  cosmic  power.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  failure  to  hold  to  the  sovereignty  of  God 
is  a  lapse  into  the  impiety  of  the  intellect.  God  is  love: 
but  if  love  be  not  omnipotent,  then  love  is  not  God. 
Recognition  of  its  sovereignty  is  our  apprisal  that  it  will 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  89 

never  abate  its  challenge  to  perfection,  never  withhold 
the  pangs  which  failure  to  respond  to  that  challenge 
must  forever  provoke. 

A  genetic  development  of  the  idea  of  divine  sover- 
eignty is  made  by  abetting  the  conscious  search  for 
causal  explanation  and  by  fostering  the  presentiment 
of  one  great  first  cause  through  a  series  of  illuminating 
analogies.  When  we  incite  children  to  trace  the  his-  • 
tory  of  a  piece  of  bread,  through  baker,  miller,  farmer, 
to  the  wheat  field,  and  to  discover  the  dependence  of 
the  growing  grain  upon  earth,  sun,  air,  dew,  and  rain; 
or,  again,  when  we  call  attention  to  the  relationships 
between  the  needs  of  nestlings  and  the  localities  in 
which  birds  build  their  nests  and  the  season  in  which 
they  hatch  their  eggs,  we  are  stimulating  causal  inter- 
est and  forming  a  habit  of  mind  which  will  issue  in  that 
search  for  ever  completer  chains  of  causality  which 
must  culminate  in  intellectual  vision  of  a  primal 
cause.  But  we  cannot  be  content  to  postpone  the 
sense  of  divine  sovereignty  until  it  is  discovered  as 
a  logical  necessity  by  conscious  intellect.  We  crave 
the  benign  and  stimulating  influence  of  this  concep- 
tion upon  the  child's  unfolding  intelligence  and  will. 
Therefore,  recognizing  the  saltatory  power  of  mind 
and  aware  that  the  prescient  imagination  must  out- 
run understanding,  we  foster  the  power  of  mystic 
divination  by  means  of  those  natural  analogies  which 
so  powerfully  affected  the  evolution  of  religion  in  the 
childhood  of  the  race,  and  through  the  lightning  flash, 
the  invisible  but  mighty  wind,  the  overarching  sky, 
and  the  all-revealing  light,  quicken  the  solemn  sense 
of  pliyine  transcendence  and  omnipotence.  For  now, 


90  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

as  in  the  days  of  yore,  Jove  hurls  his  thunderbolts 
from  Olympus;  Ahura-Mazda  triumphs  over  the  fiend 
of  darkness;  Jehovah  rides  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind, 
and  forever  above  and  beyond  this  world  gleams  the 
Eternal  City  which  hath  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither 
of  the  moon  to  shine  in  it,  for  the  Lord  God  doth 
lighten  it  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof. 

It  has  seemed  best  to  illustrate  what  we  have  thus 
far  learned  of  the  genetic  method  through  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  supreme  educational  value.    It  is  hoped 
that  the  following  points  have  been  made  clear:  — 
I.  The  point  of  departure  for  the  genetic  method 
is  life  conceived  as  interaction  between  the  indi- 
vidual and  his  social  and  natural  environment. 
II.  The  environment  presents  itself  as  a  fellowship 
to  be  shared,  an  ideal  to  be  obeyed,  and  a  world 
to   be   investigated  and   re-created.    The   indi- 
vidual responds  with  a  feeling  of  community,  a 
consciousness  of  double  selfhood,  a  tendency  to 
search  for  causes,  and  a  desire  to  exert  causal 
activity. 

III.  The  presupposition  of  the  threefold  incitement 
and  response  is  the  completely  realized  Glied- 
ganzes,  or  Triune  God,  and  the  Christian  religion 
may  be  defined  as  an  ever  growing  awareness  of 
this  presupposition  and  an  ever  increasing  voli- 
tional and  emotional  response  to  that  ideal  of  per- 
fect love  which  it  embodies  and  defines.1 

1  It  has  been  no  part  of  our  purpose  to  consider  the  agencies  by 
which  religious  education  should  be  given.  In  order,  however,  to 
avoid  all  possible  misconception,  we  desire  to  affirm  our  entire  sym- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  91 

FURTHER  IMPLICATIONS  OF  THE   GENETIC-DEVELOPING 
METHOD 

It  has  been  already  said  in  this  report  that  the  prin- 
ciple alike  of  psychology  and  education  is  self -activity. 
It  is  characteristic  of  this  principle  that  it  is  also  a 
method.  For  self -activity  must  have  some  way  of  acting, 
and  this  general  mode  of  action  will  be  its  method. 
Self-activity  achieves  its  ideal  form  in  self-conscious- 
ness. Self-consciousness  involves  awareness  both  of 
the  results  of  self-activity  and  of  its  process.  We  first 
act:  then  look  at  what  we  have  done:  and  finally  at 
the  way  we  did  it.  It  is  through  this  introspective 
and  retrospective  gaze  that  mind  ascends  from  undif- 
ferentiated  feeling  to  sensation,  perception,  concep- 
tion, and  all  higher  forms  of  mental  activity.  The 
ascent  from  sensation  to  perception  is  made  by  an  act 
of  introspection  which  looks  both  at  the  result  and  the 
process  of  sensation;  the  ascent  from  perception  to 
conception  is  made  by  a  deeper  introspective  act  which 
scans  the  product  and  process  of  perception.  In  short, 
every  ascent  of  mental  activity  is  accomplished 
through  an  introspective  survey  of  the  next  inferior 
mode  of  action,  and  the  so-called  "faculties"  of  the 
mind  must  therefore  be  conceived  as  vortical  ascents 
of  a  single  indivisible  energy. 

The  genetic-developing  method  is  nothing  more  nor 

pathy  with  that  national  ideal  which  prohibits  the  teaching  of  any 
particular  creed  in  our  public  schools. 

The  aim  of  our  discussion  has  been  twofold  —  first,  to  suggest 
an  insight  which  as  it  seems  to  us  may  be  assimilated  by  different 
religions  and  become  the  basis  of  one  universal  world- view;  and 
second,  to  indicate  the  incitements  by  means  of  which  the  emotional 
equivalents  of  this  insight  may  be  generated  in  the  hearts  of  little 
children. 


92  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

less  than  the  conscious  attempt  to  apply  the  native  method 
of  self-activity  in  education.  We  spy  upon  mind  and 
discover  how  it  acts;  then  make  its  spontaneous  mode  of 
procedure  our  criterion  of  educational  method. 

It  has  been  customary  to  describe  three  principles 
as  fundamental  to  Froebel's  educational  theory,  — 
the  principle  of  organic  unity,  the  principle  of  develop- 
ment, and  the  principle  to  which  is  sometimes  given 
the  name  of  self-activity  and  sometimes  the  name 
of  interaction.  We  are  urgent  in  our  insistence  that 
Froebel's  educational  theory  has  but  one  fundamental 
principle  —  the  principle  of  self -activity;  and  we  hope 
that  as  this  report  proceeds  our  reason  for  this  insist- 
ence will  become  clear.  For  the  moment,  we  limit 
ourselves  to  a  statement  of  our  reasons  for  preferring 
the  older  word  self -activity  to  the  newer  word  interac- 
tion, and  to  an  attempt  to  show  that  development  and 
organic  unity  must  be  conceived  as  descriptions  of  the 
process  and  result  of  self -activity. 

The  substitution  of  the  word  interaction  for  the 
word  self -activity  is  defended  on  the  ground  that  "in 
an  organic  unity  there  cannot  be  any  arbitrary  or 
external  action  of  one  part  upon  another,  it  is  rather 
an  interaction  of  the  parts  of  an  organic  unity." l  We 
hail  this  thought  as  a  notable  advance  over  the  idea 
of  a  fixed  environment,  to  which  the  individual  must  ad- 
just himself  and  the  idea  of  a  predetermined  self,  that 
is,  a  self  in  which  faculties  exist  prior  to  their  exercise. 
We  cannot,  however,  accept  organic  unity  as  our  high- 
est principle.  Such  acceptance  seems  to  us  the  out- 

1  "Kindergarten  Problems,"  Teacheri  College  Record,  November, 
1909,  p.  355. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  93 

come  of  one  of  the  most  dangerous  of  those  biologic 
analogies  to  which  are  due  so  many  of  the  confusions 
of  contemporary  thought.  The  members  of  an  organ- 
ism are  complemental  elements  in  a  whole  which  for- 
ever transcends  them.  They  differ  from  each  other 
and  from  the  whole  to  which  as  members  they  belong. 
Furthermore,  no  organism  is  ever  at  any  one  moment 
the  whole  of  itself,  nor  does  any  particular  organism 
ever  duplicate  the  species  to  which  it  belongs. 

The  final  principle  accepted  by  the  signers  of  this 
report  is  not  organic  unity,  but  the  Gliedganzes  con- 
ceived as  completely  realized  self-activity.  In  the 
light  of  this  completely  realized  self-activity  we  in- 
terpret all  lesser  forms  and  degrees  of  self-activity. 

We  freely  grant  that  the  self -activity  of  little  chil- 
dren, and,  indeed,  of  human  beings  throughout  life, 
is  of  inferior  type.  A  perfect  self-activity  would  have 
to  be  self-environing.  Only  a  creative  subject  which 
has  duplicated  itself  in  its  object  can  be  wholly  self- 
related  and  therefore  perfectly  self-active.  The  term 
interaction  appropriately  describes  one  aspect  of  that 
inferior  mode  of  self -activity  manifested  by  the  mem- 
bers of  an  organism.  It  may  also  be  generously  inter- 
preted as  referring  to  the  fellowship  or  communion  of 
individuals  in  a  social  whole.  But  even  under  the  most 
liberal  interpretation  it  fails  to  suggest  the  fact  that, 
whether  perfect  or  imperfect,  self -activity  has  a  con- 
straining form  or  inner  law,  and  that  in  human  beings 
this  inner  law  affects  both  creative  and  apperceptive 
deeds.  Hence  the  acceptance  of  organic  unity  as  the 
comprehensive  principle  of  education,  and  the  degra- 
dation of  self -activity  into  a  mere  phase  of  this  prin- 


94  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

ciple,  create  in  the  kindergarten  a  practical  procedure 
foreign  to  and  subversive  of  that  genetic-developing 
method  which  is  Froebel's  most  original  contribution 
to  the  art  of  education. 

It  should  not  be  difficult  for  any  one  who  has  insight 
into  the  principle  of  self-activity  to  understand  that 
development  is  its  process  of  unfolding  and  that  educa- 
tion may  abet  this  process  by  stimulating  related  deeds. 
We  have  all  been  made  familiar  with  the  idea  that  we 
cannot  have  a  single  sensation  which  is  unaffected 
by  our  previous  sensations.  It  is  no  less  true  that 
deeds  subsequent  are  affected  by  deeds  antecedent. 
It  is,  however,  to  some  extent  inevitable  that  the  feel- 
ings and  deeds  from  which  development  proceeds  will 
not  always  agree,  and  hence  that  there  will  be  clashes 
and  contradictions  in  the  developing  process.  The  aim 
of  education  should  be  so  far  as  possible  to  avoid  these 
contradictions  by  inciting  concordant  deeds  and  emo- 
tions. 

Students  of  abnormal  psychology  are  at  present 
having  much  to  say  of  obsessions  or  extra-voluntary 
ideas,  feelings,  or  emotions,  presenting  themselves 
automatically  in  consciousness  either  alone  or  in  com- 
bination. These  obsessions  arise  when  particular 
mental  states  get  dissociated  from  the  main  stream 
of  the  self-conscious  personality  and  then  connect 
themselves  with  other  contents  to  form  a  kind  of  iso- 
lated complex.  Any  analogous  experience  will  then 
call  up  this  disliked  and  intrusive  complex,  and  the 
resisting  personality  becomes  temporarily  or  perman- 
ently the  victim  of  a  fixed  idea.  In  normal  persons 
a  similar  contradiction  exists  in  inferior  degree.  One 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  95 

value  of  recent  studies  of  the  abnormal  is  that  they 
have  given  a  genetic  explanation  of  a  fact  of  common 
experience  and  thereby  have  cast  light  on  the  problem 
of  how  this  regrettable  and  painful  experience  may  be 
minimized.  Manifestly,  one  of  the  efforts  of  early  ed- 
ucation should  be  to  prevent  the  formation  of  these 
dissociated  complexes.  Hence  the  unifying  of  con- 
sciousness through  stimulating  concordant  deeds  and 
through  introspective  scrutiny  and  rejection  of  clash- 
ing deeds  is  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  pre- 
serving mental  health.  It  is  towards  this  unification 
of  consciousness  that  Froebel  aims  in  his  effort  to  abet 
continuity  of  development. 

The  bearings  of  the  ideal  of  continuity  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  intellect  are  no  less  important  than  its 
bearings  upon  the  development  of  will  and  feeling. 
In  this  final  relation  it  calls  for  a  genetic  evolution  of 
the  several  great  human  values  which  it  conceives  as 
revelations  of  that  aboriginal  self-determining  energy 
whose  realized  form  is  self-consciousness.  An  effort 
has  been  made  in  this  report  to  illustrate  the  earlier 
stages  in  the  evolution  of  a  single  value.  The  Froe- 
belian  method  will  be  adequately  understood  only 
after  it  is  applied  to  the  evolution  of  all  values  and  to 
all  stages  in  the  evolution  of  each  value. 

It  is  inevitable  that  large  ideas  should  shrink  when 
they  enter  small  minds,  and  it  must  be  frankly  con- 
fessed that  in  this  way  the  ideal  of  continuity  in  de- 
velopment has  too  often  shrunken  into  a  method  of 
arrest.  Not  discerning  its  wider  implications  as  re- 
lated to  the  evolution  of  human  values,  and  not  under- 
standing that,  in  evolving  from  within  the  child  the 


96  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

norms  of  his  generic  selfhood,  she  was  developing  him, 
the  narrow-minded  kindergartner  has  fondly  fancied 
that  all  she  had  to  do  was  to  make  every  possible 
combination  of  vertical  and  horizontal  lines  before 
venturing  to  use  a  slanting  line,  or  every  possible 
combination  of  the  numbers  one  and  two  before  dar- 
ing profanely  to  dream  of  applying  the  number  three. 
Through  this  shrinkage  of  the  idea  of  continuity  into 
what  was  called  the  logical  evolution  of  the  gifts  and 
occupations,  the  developing  method  was  changed  into 
a  method  of  stultification  which  deserved  all  the  scorn- 
ful criticism  it  received.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  even 
to-day  some  representatives  of  the  kindergarten  do 
this  arresting  work.  But  the  time  is  past  when  any 
intelligent  person  can  suppose  that  Froebel  would 
have  countenanced  such  a  caricature  of  his  idea. 
Furthermore,  among  the  kindergartners  who  follow 
Froebel  no  practical  tendency  is  at  present  stronger 
than  the  tendency  to  oppose  the  imposition  of  fixed 
series,  to  curtail  so  far  as  possible  the  given  elements 
out  of  which  series  unfold,  and  to  recognize  that  sal- 
tatory power  by  which  in  proportion  to  their  natural 
vigor  of  intelligence  children  leap  from  differences  of 
degree  to  differences  of  kind. 

Conceiving  the  child  as  self-active,  believing  that 
education  might  abet  the  process  of  self-activity  and 
save  it  from  falling  into  glaring  self-contradiction  by 
genetic  evolution  of  the  values  which  are  its  own  ap- 
proximate self  definitions,  and  by  incitement  of  the 
deeds  and  feelings  which  are  the  volitional  and  emo- 
tional equivalents  of  these  values,  Froebel  held  finally 
that  upon  every  plane  of  development  there  might  be 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  97 

that  integration  of  experience  which  he  sometimes 
described  as  a  spherical  totality  and  sometimes  as  an 
organic  unity.  When  he  used  the  phrase  spherical 
totality  to  express  this  idea,  there  hovered  before  him 
the  thought  of  a  force  which  since  it  projected  equal 
radii  in  all  directions  could  be  conceived  as  terminat- 
ing in  successive  spheres  of  increasing  size;  when  he 
used  the  phrase  organic  unity  his  mind  was  influenced 
by  the  famous  Kantian  definition  of  an  organism  as  a 
living  whole  wherein  each  member  was  both  means 
and  end  to  all  the  other  members  and  to  the  whole. 
In  both  cases  he  was  trying  to  think  as  clearly  as  pos- 
sible a  self -determining  energy  which  through  a  variety 
and  succession  of  interrelated  acts,  feelings,  and  ideas 
integrates  itself  into  a  structural  unity. 

The  aim  of  the  foregoing  analysis  has  been  to  show 
that  Froebel  has  but  one  fundamental  principle  — 
the  principle  of  self -activity  —  which  approximately 
realizes  itself  in  processes  and  integrates  itself  in  their 
results.  The  so-called  principles  of  development  and 
organic  unity  are  in  reality  interrelated  aspects  of  self- 
activity. 

Thus  far  in  our  discussion  of  the  genetic  method 
we  have  suggested  only  its  more  obvious  implications. 
It  has  been  shown  that  its  presupposition  is  life;  its 
point  of  departure  the  deed;  its  first  demand,  the  in- 
citement of  deeds  pointing  towards  the  values  of  life 
and  restraint  of  deeds  which  antagonize  those  values; 
its  second  demand,  the  introspective  and  retrospective 
scrutiny  through  which  deeds  become  self -penetrating, 
or  in  other  words  through  which  self-determining 
energy  becomes  aware  of  itself.  It  has  been  further 


98  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

shown  that  the  genetic  method  is  simply  the  conscious 
attempt  of  education  to  reinforce  the  native  principle 
of  self-activity  in  its  spontaneous  effort  to  objectify 
itself  in  processes  of  development  and  integrate  its 
results  in  a  vitally  related  totality  or  organic  unity. 

Froebel's  own  statements  of  the  deeper  implications 
of  the  genetic  method  are  contained  in  his  references 
to  and  discussions  of  what  in  kindergarten  terminology 
is  known  as  the  law  of  Mediation  of  Opposites.  Our 
next  task,  therefore,  must  be  to  explain  as  briefly  as 
possible  what  we  understand  to  be  the  meaning  of  the 
Froebelian  law. 

The  first  requirement  necessary  to  the  correct  un- 
derstanding of  the  Mediation  of  Opposites  is  a  precise 
definition  of  the  word  law.  Many  persons  seem  to 
think  of  a  law  as  external  to  the  energy  it  guides  and 
restrains  and  to  assume  that  were  it  not  for  this  ex- 
ternal coercion  the  energy  itself  would  behave  in  quite 
other  ways.  Understood  in  this  sense  any  law  imposed 
upon  mind  would  be  an  attack  upon  its  freedom.  The 
question  emerges  whether  this  is  a  correct  conception 
of  law.  The  physicist  speaks  of  the  law  of  gravitation 
and  affirms  that  in  virtue  of  this  law  all  objects  attract 
each  other  in  direct  proportion  to  their  mass  and 
in  inverse  proportion  to  the  square  of  their  distance. 
Manifestly,  the  law  of  gravitation  merely  summarizes 
our  experience  of  the  way  in  which  this  force  behaves. 
Should  we  ever  find,  as  some  physicists  are  beginning 
to  claim,  that  facts  contradict  the  formula,  we  should 
conclude  we  had  been  mistaken  in  our  law. 

Understanding  that  a  law  is  not  an  external  edict 
binding  a  reluctant  energy,  but  a  fixed  form  in  which 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  99 

an  energy  acts  in  virtue  of  its  own  constitution,  we 
may  briefly  define  the  Froebelian  law  as  the  universal 
mode  of  action  of  the  energy  we  know  as  mind.  Be- 
cause mind  is  what  it  is,  it  behaves  spontaneously  and 
yet  unvaryingly  in  a  certain  way.  This  spontaneous 
and  yet  unvarying  mode  of  behaviour  may  be  called  its 
law. 

"I  wish,"  said  Alice  to  the  Cheshire  Cat  she  met 
in  Wonderland,  "I  wish  you  wouldn't  keep  appear- 
ing and  vanishing  so  suddenly.  You  make  me  quite 
giddy." 

"All  right,"  said  the  Cat,  and  this  time  it  vanished 
quite  slowly,  beginning  with  the  end  of  the  tail  and 
ending  with  the  grin,  which  remained  some  time  after 
the  rest  of  it  had  gone. 

"Well!  I've  often  seen  a  cat  without  a  grin," 
thought  Alice;  "but  a  grin  without  a  cat,  —  it's  the 
most  curious  thing  I  ever  saw." 

Anybody  may  see  anywhere  a  cat  without  a  grin. 
It  is  only  in  Wonderland  that  one  may  see  a  grin  with- 
out a  cat.  The  kindergartner  who  aspires  towards  a 
real  understanding  of  the  Froebelian  law  must  be  pre- 
pared to  go  through  with  an  experience  which  for  a 
time  will  make  her  no  less  giddy  than  Alice.  The  form 
or  law  of  mind  will  appear  and  vanish,  and  just  when 
she  is  most  sure  she  has  seen  it,  it  will  disappear  most 
completely  from  her  sight.  Let  her,  however,  be 
patient  and  resolute,  for  after  a  while  the  vanishings 
will  cease,  and  when  the  vision  abides  there  abides 
with  it  a  joy  which  transfigures  life. 

If  it  be  understood  that  the  phrase  "  form  of  mind  " 
means  simply  an  unvarying  way  in  which  mind  be- 


100  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

haves,  we  may  next  look  into  ourselves  to  discover  if 
in  reality  there  be  any  one  mode  to  which  our  mental 
activity  always  conforms.  We  shall  perhaps  recognize 
this  mode  of  action  most  readily  in  our  moral  life  and 
as  summarized  hi  such  formulas  as  "It  is  only  with 
renunciation  that  life,  properly  speaking,  can  be  said 
to  begin  " ;  "  Surrender  happiness  and  win  blessedness  " ; 
"Create  selfhood  by  crucifying  self";  or,  in  most 
vigorous  epitome,  "Die  to  live."  No  one  who  has 
made  an  honest  and  persistent  moral  struggle  can  fail 
to  know  hi  HIM- If  as  an  incarnate  paradox.  As  was  said 
in  an  earlier  portion  of  this  report,  each  human  being 
is  a  slave,  an  enslaver,  and  a  deliverer,  and  is  engaged 
in  a  war  wherein  he  is  both  of  the  contending  parties, 
the  ground  of  conflict  and  the  fruit  of  victory.  The 
paradox  thus  illustrated  hi  the  moral  conflict  holds 
in  all  spheres  of  human  experience  and  may  be  pictori- 
ally  suggested  by  all  forms  of  achievement.  Each  man 
is  an  architect,  who  is  also  the  quarry  whence  comes 
his  marble  and  the  temple  he  rears;  a  sculptor  who  is 
his  own  clay  and  the  statue  he  molds;  a  musician  who 
is  the  symphony  he  creates  and  the  instrument  upon 
which  it  is  played;  a  poet  who  is  at  once  his  own  legen- 
dary material  and  his  song;  in  short,  a  self -active 
energy  which  is  its  own  creator,  its  own  stuff,  and  its 
own  product,  and  which  in  order  to  achieve  its  prod- 
uct must  overcome  the  persistent  obstacle  variously 
suggested  by  the  malleable  yet  resisting  clay,  the 
recalcitrant  marble,  the  imperfect  musical  instrument, 
and  the  obscure  legend. 

These  crude  and  external  pictures  of  an  unpicturable 
reality  are  only  intended  to  assist  unaccustomed  minds 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  101 

to  approach  a  difficult  thought.  That  thought  itself 
is  most  briefly  stated  as  negative  self -relation.  The 
kindergartner  who  wishes  to  understand  the  Mediation 
of  Opposites  must  discipline  herself  in  thinking  until 
she  can  see  with  her  own  intellectual  eyes  that  any 
pure  self-activity  must  be  a  self-related  negative, 
and  until  she  is  able  to  deduce  from  this  insight  its 
more  obvious  consequences. 

This  difficult  thought  may  be  gradually  approached. 
We  are  to  think  a  pure  self -activity,  that  is,  an  activity 
which  acts  upon  itself.  For  if  it  acted  upon  anything 
other  than  itself  it  would  be  related  to  this  other  in- 
stead of  being  self -related,  and  relationship  to  another 
always  implies  some  degree  of  determinism,  and  there- 
fore contradicts  the  idea  of  pure  self-activity. 

When  we  see  that  a  pure  self -activity  must  act  upon 
itself,  we  are  ready  to  approach  the  more  difficult  in- 
sight that  in  so  doing  it  dirempts  itself  at  once  into 
determiner  and  determined,  or  into  energy  and  pro- 
duct. In  acting  upon  itself,  therefore,  a  pure  self- 
activity  produces  within  itself  a  realm  of  passivity  and 
particularity.  It  makes  itself,  and  necessarily  makes 
itself  that  which  it  is  not.  Hence  its  act  is  negative 
to  itself. 

It  is  easy  to  illustrate  the  essential  negativity  of  a 
pure  self -activity  by  the  analogy  of  all  imperfect  self- 
activities.  Every  generic  energy  in  the  vegetable  and 
animal  world  is  an  imperfect  self-activity,  and  every 
such  energy  is  at  any  given  moment  contradicted  by 
its  product.  Neither  the  acorn,  the  sapling,  nor  the 
full-grown  tree  duplicates  the  generic  energy,  oak; 
nor  is  this  energy  duplicated  even  in  the  total  process 


102  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  life  which  includes  these  several  products.  For  the 
generic  energy  we  name  oak  includes  many  species, 
and  the  particular  oak  is  only  a  single  specimen  of  a 
single  species.  A  generic  energy  which  is  always  try- 
ing unsuccessfully  to  duplicate  itself  is  a  negative 
which  can  negate  itself  but  not  negate  its  negating  act, 
and  which  therefore  is  unable  to  overcome  the  tragedy 
of  its  inherent  form. 

The  relation  of  a  negative  activity  to  itself  may  be 
illustrated  on  a  higher  plane  through  our  own  processes 
of  thinking  and  willing.  The  particular  thought  is  only 
one  of  myriads  which  we  might  think,  the  particular 
deed  only  one  of  myriads  which  we  might  do.  Hence 
every  thought  is  in  a  very  real  sense  an  arrest  of  think- 
ing, and  every  particular  deed,  as  Goethe  tells  us, 
"impedes  the  onward  march  of  life." 

We  implicitly  recognize  this  contradiction  between 
thinking  and  doing  on  the  one  hand,  and  thought  and 
deed  on  the  other,  by  our  condemnation  of  the  in- 
tellectual narrowness  and  rigidity  due  to  mechan- 
ical reiteration  of  accustomed  thought,  and  by  our 
disapproval  of  action  which  has  so  long  limited 
itself  to  fixed  ruts  as  to  be  incapable  of  pioneer 
effort. 

The  contradiction  with  self  into  which  the  act  of 
determining  must  plunge  a  pure  self-activity  supplies 
the  incitement  to  renewed  act.  For  reflect:  A  pure 
self-activity  must  be  an  energy  having  the  mark  of 
universality.  It  is  the  potentiality  of  all  possible  deeds. 
It  acts,  and  by  this  act  determines  itself  as  particular. 
Being  universal,  it  is  repelled  by  this  particularity  and 
acts  again  to  annul  it.  In  its  first  aspect,  this  act  of 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  103 

annulment  is  a  restoration  of  universality;  in  its  sec- 
ond aspect,  it  is  a  new  determination  which  again 
plunges  self -activity  into  contradiction  with  itself  and 
incites  new  effort  to  cancel  the  contradiction.  Hence 
through  its  own  inherent  constitution  a  self-related 
negative  becomes  its  own  perpetual  self-incitement 
and  maintains  itself  as  an  eternal  process,  which,  in 
the  words  of  the  philosopher  who  has  seen  most  deeply 
into  the  miracle  of  self -activity,  "pulsates  within  itself 
without  moving  itself  and  vibrates  within  itself  without 
ruffling  its  repose." 

The  characteristic  feature  of  a  negatively  self -related 
activity  is  that  its  inhibition  is  its  renewal.  It  is  this 
negative  self-relation  which  we  mean  when  we  speak 
of  the  form  or  law  of  mind,  and  it  is  because  we  see 
that  this  form  cannot  be  denied  without  affirming 
it  that  we  claim  for  it  the  quality  of  absolute  truth. 
Having  made  our  own  statement,  we  give  ourselves 
the  pleasure  of  citing  the  more  adequate  statement  of 
Professor  Royce.  "What,"  he  asks,  "is  thinking?" 
And  replies:  "Thinking  is  simply  our  activity  of  will- 
ing precisely  in  so  far  as  we  are  clearly  conscious  of 
what  we  do  and  why  we  do  it.  And  thinking  is  found 
by  us  to  possess  an  absolute  form  precisely  in  so  far 
as  we  find  that  there  are  certain  aspects  of  our  activity 
which  sustain  themselves  even  in  and  through  the  very 
effort  to  inhibit  them.  One  who  says :  '  I  do  not  admit 
that  for  me  there  is  any  difference  between  saying  yes 
and  saying  no'  —  says  '  No,'  and  distinguishes  negation 
from  affirmation  even  in  the  very  act  of  denying  this 
distinction.  Well,  affirmation  and  negation  are  such 
self-sustaining  forms  of  our  will-activity  and  of  our 


104  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

thought  activity.  And  such  self-sustaining  forms  of 
activity  determine  absolute  truths"  l 

The  question  may  be  raised  whether,  even  granting 
that  mind  is  a  self-related  negative,  its  constitution 
has  any  bearing  upon  the  method  of  education.  It 
remains,  therefore,  to  be  suggested  that  this  inherent 
constitution  of  mind  acts  both  as  an  apperceptive 
agency  and  as  a  determiner  of  the  form  of  all  creative 
activity.  It  was  because  of  this  form  that  the  selective 
interest  of  primitive  men  fastened  upon  those  natural 
phenomena  wherein  it  was  adumbrated.  It  is  in  virtue 
of  this  form  that  the  sensuous  elements  of  every  art 
are  regularity,  symmetry,  and  harmony.  It  is  because 
of  the  coercion  of  this  inner  law  that  every  great  hu- 
man value  breaks  its  own  path  towards  that  concep- 
tion of  the  Gliedganzes  wherein  is  clearly  revealed 
the  constitution  of  the  positive  out  of  the  negative. 
Finally,  it  is  because  of  the  fact  that  this  mode  of  be- 
havior is  the  most  essential  feature  of  mental  life  in  all 
stages  of  development,  and  that  from  earliest  child- 
hood its  constraining  influence  far  surpasses  that  of 
any  special  impulse  or  tendency,  that  it  may  not  be 
ignored  in  education. 

When  we  wish  to  learn  most  clearly  of  the  way  mind 
loves  best  to  act  we  turn  to  the  poets.  No  student  of 
great  literature  can  fail  to  be  aware  how  all  great  poets 
delight  in  mere  sport  with  the  "form  or  law  of  mind," 
and  also  how,  when  they  turn  from  sport  to  the  keener 
joy  of  self-revelation,  the  same  great  law  determines 
the  theme  and  structure  of  their  poems.  Readers  of 

1  Josiah  Royce,  The  Problem  of  Truth  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Re- 
ttarch,  p.  86. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  105 

the  Odyssey  will  remember  the  punning  device  by 
which  the  crafty  hero  outwitted  the  Cyclops.  Giving 
his  name  as  Noman,  he  made  it  impossible  for  the 
blinded  giant  to  declare  who  had  blinded  him  without 
affirming  that  no  one  had  blinded  him.  Professor 
Snider  has  said  that  the  pun  of  Odysseus  is  the  deepest 
ever  made  or  that  it  will  ever  be  possible  to  make, 
because  it  rests  on  the  duplicity  inherent  in  the  nega- 
tive. To  the  same  inherent  duplicity  we  owe  the  gro- 
tesque pictures  of  Dante  and  Virgil  escaping  from 
hell  by  climbing  up  the  legs  of  the  reversed  Devil  into 
the  sunlit  world.  The  last  world  poet  had  his  own 
little  free  play  with  the  negative  when  he  dispatched 
Faust  to  seek  his  all  in  the  nothing  of  Mephistopheles. 
Eckermann  tells  us  that  when  asked  to  explain  the 
mysterious  scene  Goethe  raised  his  brows,  opened  his 
eyes,  and  assumed  a  mysterious  air.  He  was  enjoying 
a  fun  which  only  those  who  knew  his  open  secret  could 
share. 

Great  poets  are  not  satisfied  to  sport  with  the  nega- 
tive, but  more  or  less  consciously  determine  the  theme 
and  structure  of  their  song  by  this  constraining  form. 
The  Iliad  is  a  concrete  portrayal  of  the  moral  paradox, 
"Die  to  live."  The  Odyssey  transfigures  all  tales  of 
geographic  wandering  into  the  search  of  the  soul  for 
itself.  The  poet  of  the  church  shows  the  negative  will 
negating  its  own  negativity  and  becoming  holy;  the 
poet  of  the  individual  traces  the  process  of  the  intellect 
through  the  same  self-refuting,  self-reaffirming  cycle; 
and  the  great  poet  of  society  never  tires  of  showing 
how  the  social  whole  by  its  negative  reaction  upon 
negative  deeds  makes  them  the  instruments  of  their 


106  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

own  undoing.  Literature  would  not  be  a  revelation 
of  life  did  it  not  reveal  the  inner  law  which  controls 
life.  Turn  where  we  may,  we  shall  find  that  life, 
whether  lived  or  pictured,  is  a  great  dialectic  process 
which  is  perpetually  illustrating  the  creation  of  the 
positive  by  the  negation  of  the  negative. 

It  is  to  this  universal  process  that  Froebel  gives  the 
name  Mediation  of  Opposites,  and  it  is  because  we 
recognize  it  as  the  absolute  form  of  all  mental  activity 
that  we  cannot  agree  with  those  kindergartners  who 
either  reject  or  ignore  the  so-called  Froebelian  law. 
Recognition  of  the  inner  law,  however,  is  perfectly  dis- 
tinct from  acceptance  of  the  particular  devices  of  in- 
strument or  method  which  Froebel  created  under  the 
inspiration  of  this  insight.  It  is  possible  to  accept  the 
Mediation  of  Opposites  and  reject  all  Froebel's  appli- 
cations of  this  principle.  It  is  possible  to  accept  some 
of  his  applications  and  reject  others.  Each  particular 
application  should  be  intelligently  tested  and  ac- 
cepted or  rejected  upon  its  own  merits.  But  the  inner 
law  itself  is  a  definition  of  the  structural  form  of  self- 
activity  and  any  educational  method  which  rejects  or 
ignores  it  imperils  itself  by  denying  an  agency  pre- 
potent in  its  influence  both  upon  creative  and  apper- 
ceptive  activities. 

The  universal  law  or  lorm  of  mind  is  the  true  key 
to  the  genetic-developing  method.  In  Froebel's  re- 
current statements  of  this  law  we  are  always  apprized 
that  "every  individual  being,  if  it  would  attain  its 
destiny,  must  manifest  itself  in  and  as  unity,  in  and 
as  individuality,  and  in  and  as  manifoldness  in  ever 
increasing  diversity."  His  statements  have  too  often 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  107 

been  misunderstood  because  the  word  unity  has  been 
explained  in  a  static  sense.  Froebel's  own  phrase  is 
ejaergetic  unity,  and  his  reference  is  to  the  universal 
or  self -determining  phase  in  the  process  of  self -activity. 
The  phrase  "  ever  increasing  diversity  "  points  to  the 
results  of  that  constant  annulment  of  particularity 
through  which  new  particulars  are  posited,  and  the 
word  individuality  defines  that  concrete  union  of  uni- 
versality and  particularity  which  is  both  the  eternal 
antecedent  and  the  ever  renewed  consequent  of  the 
self-determining  process. 

In  its  practical  relation  to  educational  method  the 
significance  of  the  Froebelian  law  is  that  it  makes 
a  further  explication  of  the  native  developing-process 
of  self-activity.  We  have  already  seen  that  this  pro- 
cess involves  the  ideas  of  continuity  and  integration. 
We  should  now  see  that  it  involves  the  ideas  of  a  con- 
tinuity incited  by  and  maintained  through  the  posit- 
ing and  annulment  of  antitheses,  and  hence  that  it 
explains  the  final  origin  of  those  clashing  deeds  whose 
result  is  the  formation  of  dissociated  complexes.  In 
the  light  of  this  revelation  of  the  final  source  of  moral 
evil  and  intellectual  error,  we  discern  that  most  im- 
portant exaction  of  the  genetic-developing  method, 
that  upon  every  plane  of  experience  there  shall  be  a 
resolute  facing  of  the  intellectual  aberrations  and 
moral  perversions  into  which  children  have  been  ac- 
tually betrayed  and  a  conscious  attempt  to  help  them 
assimilate  and  thereby  transcend  negative  deeds  and 
wayward  fancies.  To  this  requisition  of  restraint  is 
added  a  requisition  of  incitement,  and  from  insight 
into  the  Froebelian  law  emerges  the  demand  that  both 


108  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

creative  and  apperceptive  activity  shall  be  heightened 
by  concrete  presentation  of  those  terminal  contrasts 
of  action,  sentiment,  and  idea  which  are  so  much  more 
readily  apprehended  than  nearer  and  finer  distinctions. 

"The  key  to  every  man,"  writes  Emerson,  "is  his 
thought.  Sturdy  and  defying  though  he  look,  he  has  a 
helm  which  he  obeys,  which  is  the  idea  after  which  all 
his  facts  are  classified."  l  To  the  reader  who  has  un- 
derstood this  report  it  should  be  evident  that  the  helm 
which  Froebel's  mind  obeys  is  the  Mediation  of  Oppo- 
sites.  The  conception  of  the  Gliedganzes  is  attained 
by  developing  the  theoretic  implications  of  this  mas- 
ter-thought. The  kindergarten  translates  this  same 
master-thought  into  deed  through  its  attempt  to 
mediate  the  apparently  excluding  antitheses  of  play 
and  work.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  writer  of  this 
report  has  devoted  a  whole  book  to  the  elucidation  of 
this  attempt,  its  further  exposition  seems  superfluous, 
and  the  signers  of  this  report  restrict  themselves  to 
reaffirmation  of  the  following  statements  from  the  re- 
port presented  to  the  Committee  of  Nineteen  by  the 
conservative  members  of  that  body. 

We  hold  that  the  highest  form  in  which  the  native 
activity  of  childhood  expresses  itself  is  play.  We  ac- 
cept the  Froebelian  definition  of  play  "as  self -active 
representation  of  the  inner  life  from  inner  necessity 
and  impulse."  We  believe  that  mind  grows  into  self- 
consciousness  through  self -revelation.  We  conceive 
the  characteristic  mark  of  the  kindergarten  to  be  em- 
phasis upon  the  activity  of  self-expression  as  prior 
to  the  activity  of  assimilation.  We  are  earnest  in  our 
1  "Circles,"  Essays,  First  Series. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  109 

conviction  that  kindergarten  exercises  must  preserve 
the  form  of  play.  We  recognize  as  a  distinctive  merit 
of  the  kindergarten  that  from  the  native  plays  of  child- 
hood it  makes  a  selection  determined  by  their  relation 
to  the  values  of  human  life.  Through  his  studies  of 
childhood,  Froebel  became  aware  of  the  fact  that  some 
plays  point  toward  the  practical  arts,  some  toward  the 
fine  arts,  some  toward  science  and  literature,  and  some 
toward  the  ethical  life  of  man  as  embodied  in  social 
institutions.  In  these  creations  of  the  human  spirit  he 
found  his  standards  of  value.  In  various  forms  of  play 
he  recognized  the  tendencies  of  which  these  values 
are  the  higher  expression.  Through  recognition  of  this 
relationship  between  native  manifestations  and  human 
values  he  was  enabled  to  graft  upon  selected  forms  of 
play  the  higher  realization  of  their  own  ideal.  The 
value  of  thus  transforming  play  is  that  it  develops  the 
child  through  his  own  free  impulsion.  It  augments  the 
energy  of  ideals  instead  of  paralyzing  them.  The  values 
of  life  must  not  be  conceived  as  artificial  flowers  fas- 
tened by  some  external  hand  upon  a  plant  which  could 
never  have  produced  them,  but  as  the  perfect  blossom 
in  which  the  plant  completes  its  life  and  provides  for 
its  own  renewal. 

We  further  hold  that  by  accenting  plays  pointing 
toward  the  values  of  life  the  kindergarten  creates  a 
selective  interest  which  leads  children  to  single  out 
from  the  complex  of  experience  its  valid  and  necessary 
as  opposed  to  its  contingent  elements,  and  thereby,  as 
Froebel  expresses  it,  "breaks  a  pathway  through  the 
tangles  of  human  life."  It  is  becoming  increasingly 
recognized  that  the  "likenesses  and  differences  we 


110  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

observe  in  facts  are  not  merely  thrust  upon  us  without 
our  consent  and  connivance.  They  are  the  objects  of 
our  attentive  interest  and  they  obviously  vary  with 
this  interest."  l  It  is  also  admitted  that  selective  inter- 
est precedes  voluntary  attention.  Finally,  it  is  granted 
that  the  native  selective  interest  of  young  children 
often  fastens  upon  non-essential  and  sometimes  upon 
harmful  presentations.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to 
create  a  selective  interest  which  will  single  out  in 
rational  proportion  the  valid  elements  of  experience. 
The  means  by  which  this  higher  selective  interest  is 
aroused  is  the  exercise  of  selected  forms  of  activity. 
In  succinct  summary  what  a  child  does  has  a  reaction 
upon  his  selective  interest,  and  therefore  indirectly 
determines  which  among  the  many  influences  stream- 
ing toward  him  shall  be  welcomed  by  his  mind  and 
become  the  material  out  of  which  he  builds  himself  and 
his  world. 

KINDERGARTEN    SYMBOLISM 

Whoever  accepts  the  idea  that  kindergarten  exer- 
cises shall  preserve  the  form  of  play  accepts  symbolism 
in  its  more  inclusive  sense.  The  Standard  Dictionary 
defines  a  symbol  "as  something  (not  a  portrait)  that 
stands  for  something  else  and  serves  either  to  represent 
it  or  to  bring  to  mind  one  or  more  of  its  qualities."  It 
adds:  "A  symbol  is  chosen  either  arbitrarily  or  on  ac- 
count of  some  supposed  resemblance  between  it  and 
the  object  it  symbolizes."  In  kindergarten  terminology 
the  word  symbol  is  restricted  to  resembling  objects  and 
acts,  and  the  word  sign  is  used  to  denote  any  object 
which  stands  for  another,  not  in  virtue  of  some  resem- 
1  Royce.  The  World  and  the  Individual,  vol.  11,  p.  48. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  111 

blance,  but  in  virtue  of  our  social  agreement.  As  illus- 
trations of  such  conventional  signs  may  be  mentioned 
the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  diacritical  marks,  mathe- 
matical figures,  schematic  drawings,  telegraphic  dots, 
and  all  words  whose  metaphorical  meaning  has  been 
submerged  in  their  agreed-upon  sense. 

This  distinction  between  the  symbol  and  the  sign 
is  not  a  mere  distinction  of  convenience.  It  rests  upon 
a  psychologic  discrimination  between  two  marked 
stages  of  mental  development  —  the  stage  wherein 
the  individual  does  his  thinking  almost  exclusively 
with  pictures  and  the  stage  wherein  to  a  large  extent 
he  thinks  with  definitions.  Only  in  so  far  as  he  thinks 
by  definition  can  he  use  conventional  signs.  For  con- 
ventional signs  imply  social  agreement,  and  social 
agreement  implies  common  definition  of  classes  of 
objects  and  acts. 

Defining  symbolism  as  the  representation  of  one 
object  or  act  by  another  which  in  some  way  resembles 
it,  we  become  aware  that  in  this  wider  sense  all  make- 
believe  play  is  symbolic.  The  little  girl  who  makes- 
believe  she  is  her  own  mother,  the  boy  who  makes- 
believe  that  his  stick  is  a  horse,  are  both  illustrating 
symbolism  in  its  broader  meaning.  The  kindergarten, 
therefore,  does  not  impose  upon  make-believe  play  an 
alien  law,  but  merely  recognizes  its  own  most  salient 
characteristic  when  it  encourages  the  little  child  to 
make-believe  that  his  ball  is  a  bird  when  it  hops  or  a 
pendulum  when  it  swings,  or  that  he  himself  is  a  horse 
when  he  trots  or  a  soldier  when  he  marches. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  symbolism  as  shown  in 
childish  play  is  its  identification  of  different  objects 


112  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

through  some  single  striking  mark.  The  same  sym- 
bolic activity  is  manifested  in  childish  speech.  It  is 
characteristic  of  infantile  intelligence  to  seize  its  ob- 
ject under  some  one  striking  aspect  and  to  identify 
with  it  other  objects  sharing  this  selected  mark.  For 
example,  a  ceiling  is  grasped  as  something  high,  and 
straightway  the  word  ceiling  is  applied  to  the  sky, 
or  the  word  "coo-coo,"  spoken  when  the  mother  hides 
her  face  behind  a  handkerchief  is  understood  to  mean 
disappearance  and  is  promptly  extended  to  the  sun 
vanishing  below  the  horizon. 

The  reaction  of  childish  symbolism  upon  mental 
evolution  is  a  very  important  one.  It  leads,  on  the  one 
hand,  towards  conscious  grasp  of  the  activity  or  at- 
tribute through  which  different  objects  have  been  iden- 
tified, in  detachment  from  all  objects,  and  on  the  other, 
first,  to  an  uneasy  suspicion,  and  later  to  a  clear  recog- 
nition of  excluding  distinctions  between  the  identified 
objects.  Thus  symbolic  activity  is  the  characteristic 
feature  of  that  cycle  of  self-activity  through  which 
ascent  is  made  towards  the  concrete  definition  of  par- 
ticular objects  and  towards  the  clear  discrimination 
between  image  and  idea. 

A  careful  study  of  the  speech  and  play  of  any  par- 
ticular child  consciously  directed  towards  discovery  of 
the  ties  through  which  he  identifies  different  objects 
would  perhaps  throw  more  light  than  any  other  inves- 
tigation upon  that  native  form  of  reaction  through 
which  each  human  being  builds  up  his  own  individu- 
ality. Between  the  boy  who  plays  he  is  a  horse  by 
prancing,  kicking,  bucking,  and  running  away,  and 
the  boy  who  trots  steadily  in  cheerful  response  to  voice 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  US 

and  bridle,  there  is  a  difference  which  cannot  be  wholly 
explained  by  the  influence  of  environment;  and  be- 
tween two  sisters,  one  of  whom  plays  mother  by  per- 
petually spanking  her  baby  while  the  other  as  make- 
believe  mother  goes  through  the  most  varied  forms 
of  tender  service,  there  is  a  contrast  which  wise  edu- 
cation may  not  ignore. 

Since  it  is  through  his  peculiar  reactions  against  the 
influence  of  environment  that  each  child  builds  up  his 
individuality,  all  children  should  have  plenty  of  time 
and  opportunity  for  free  play  and  in  free  play  should 
be  interfered  with  as  little  as  possible.  The  process  of 
building  individuality  may,  however,  be  abetted  in 
several  ways.  The  first  of  these  is  improvement  of 
the  environment  against  which  the  child  reacts.  "It  is 
inevitable,"  writes  Professor  Baldwin,  "that  the  child 
make  up  his  personality  under  limitations  of  heredity 
by  imitation  out  of  the  copy  set  in  the  actions,  temper, 
emotions,  of  the  persons  who  build  around  him  the 
social  enclosure  of  childhood."  The  prime  duties  of 
parents  and  kindergartners  are  to  protect  the  child 
from  bad  models  and  supply  him  with  good  ones. 
They  should  also  observe  with  care  what  special  per- 
sons, objects,  and  actions  are  most  frequently  imitated, 
for  in  such  imitations  the  child  reveals  the  native  bias 
of  his  temperament,  indicates  the  line  of  his  possibili- 
ties, and  suggests  the  dangers  to  which  he  is  prone. 
They  should  divert  attention  from  persons  or  things 
which  monopolize  imagination  and  threaten  to  derange 
balance  of  character  by  subjecting  it  to  the  tyranny  of 
too  few  ideas.  They  should  procure  for  the  child  that 
variety  in  the  persons  and  objects  of  environment 


114  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

which  is  "the  soul  of  originality  and  the  fountain  of  the 
ethical  life."  Finally,  by  gentle  and  indirect  suggestion 
they  may  help  children  to  substitute  higher  for  lower 
reactions.  For  example,  it  may  be  suggested  to  the 
cl.ild-mother  who  is  over-fond  of  spanking  her  crying 
baby  that  perhaps  it  cries  because  it  is  uncomfortable, 
and  that,  if  she  would  hold  its  cold  feet  to  the  fire  or 
find  the  pin  which  may  be  pricking  it,  its  screams  and 
kicks  would  cease. 

While  free  play  is  indispensable  to  the  development 
of  individuality  and  while  it  may  be  influenced  by 
good  copy,  by  variety  of  copy,  by  diversion  of  attention 
from  monopolizing  ideas,  and  by  indirect  suggestion,  it 
is  manifest  that,  if  play  is  to  be  made  the  instrument 
of  any  form  of  corporate  education,  there  must  be 
developed  games  whose  accent  is  not  upon  the  individ- 
,  ~  uality  through  which  one  human  being  is  distinguished 
from  another,  but  upon  that  rational  human  type  or 
generic  spirit  in  which  all  individuals  participate,  and 
whose  historic  achievement  has  been  the  evolution  of 
the  great  human  values.  The  traditional  games  of  the 
nursery  and  the  playground  point  towards  these  val- 
ues, and  it  is  in  these  traditional  games  and  not  in 
the  free  play  of  particular  children  that  we  must  seek 
for  the  prototypes  of  kindergarten  activities.  The  re- 
lationship of  Froebel  to  the  traditional  games  of  child- 
hood is  analogous  to  the  relationship  between  the  poet 
who  interprets  and  transforms  an  obscure  myth  and  the 
collective  spirit  in  whose  depths  the  myth  originated. 

The  thoughts  which  have  been  suggested  are  in- 
tended as  a  bridge  from  the  conception  of  symbolism, 
in  its  more  inclusive  sense  as  the  representation  of  one 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  115 

object  or  act  by  another  which  in  some  way  resembles 
it,  to  the  more  specific  conception  of  symbolism, 
defined  in  kindergarten  terminology  as  play  with  typ- 
ical objects  and  representation  of  typical  facts,  char- 
acters, relations,  and  processes.  All  symbolic  play  unites 
the  represented  with  the  representing  object,  action, 
or  person  through  some  selected  tie.  Symbolic  play 
becomes  typical  when  the  tie  selected  points  towards 
logical  as  distinguished  from  psychologic  concepts. 

Most  adults  have  learned  to  think  many  simple 
ideas  by  definition,  and  are  therefore  able  to  use  a 
large  number  of  conventional  signs.  Many  adults, 
however,  are  unable  to  think  such  ideas  as  are  em- 
bodied in  the  institutions  of  church  and  state  except  in 
symbolic  form.  The  difference  between  the  adult  and 
the  child  is  simply  that,  while  the  average  adult  does 
much  though  not  all  of  his  thinking  through  definition, 
the  child  does  most  though  not  all  of  his  thinking  with 
pictures.  Children  need  to  have  all  ethical  ideals  pre- 
sented in  the  form  of  concrete  examples,  and  all  gen- 
eral thoughts  presented  under  some  image  of  sense. 
The  kindergarten  attempts  to  bridge  the  chasm  be- 
tween the  mental  image  and  the  general  idea  through 
play  with  typical  objects,  and  through  representation  of 
typical  acts,  facts,  characters,  relations,  and  processes. ' 

The  statement  that  children  think  mainly  with 
pictures  must  not  be  understood  to  imply  that  they 
have  no  general  ideas.  Professor  Preyer  proved  con- 
clusively that  his  child  had  attained  one  general  idea 
in  his  eleventh  month,  and  in  learning  to  use  language 
all  children  acquire  the  power  of  seeing  objects  as 
individuals  belonging  to  classes.  In  early  childhood, 


116  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

however,  such  general  ideas  as  are  expressed  by  ab* 
stract  nouns  are  entirely  beyond  the  range  of  intelli- 
gent apprehension.  Speak  to  a  child  of  heroism,  social 
interdependence,  or  patriotism,  and  you  might  as  well 
speak  to  a  deaf  person.  But  tell  him  the  story  of 
David,  let  him  play  such  games  as  the  farmer,  miller, 
baker,  carpenter,  and  wheelwright,  encourage  him  to 
march  like  a  soldier,  and  to  wave  high  in  air  our 
national  flag,  and  you  not  only  stir  the  emotional 
equivalents  of  these  ideals,  but  prepare  the  way  for 
their  definition  to  intellect.  Most  of  the  symbolism  of 
the  kindergarten  takes  the  form  of  typical  representa- 
tion. The  greater  number  of  kindergarten  games;  the 
rhymes  and  stories  throwing  into  relief  selected  types 
of  character;  the  careful  selection  of  typical  facts  as 
approaches  to  the  different  sciences;  the  use  of  arche- 
typal forms  as  playthings;  the  use  of  organically 
related  gifts;  the  many  concrete  illustrations  of  essen- 
tial relations  and  evolutionary  processes;  the  develop- 
ment of  forms  of  beauty  and  knowledge  by  the  media- 
tion of  antitheses,  are  one  and  all  illustrations  of  that 
form  of  symbolism  defined  as  representation  of  typical 
acts,  objects,  characters,  relations,  and  processes.  As 
has  been  said,  this  form  of  symbolism  differs  from  spon- 
taneous play  only  in  the  ties  selected  to  bind  together 
the  represented  and  representing  act,  object,  or  person. 
The  insight  which  creates  this  whole  series  of  symbolic 
activities  is  that  through  play  the  child  determines  in 
large  measure  the  direction  of  his  attention  and  the 
trend  of  his  character.1 

1  For  a  more  complete  discussion  of  this  form  of  symbolism  see 
Educational  luuca  in  the  Kindergarten,  pp.  37-75. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  117 

While  the  concrete  presentation  of  types  is  the  pre- 
dominant form  of  kindergarten  symbolism,  it  is  not 
the  exclusive  form.  It  has  already  been  suggested 
that  the  symbolic  activity  of  free  play  is  a  potent 
factor  in  the  building  of  individuality.  All  kinder- 
gartens offer  opportunity  for  such  free  play.  They 
also  encourage  a  minor  form  of  free  play  in  connection 
with  the  typical  game.  For  example,  after  mother  and 
father  have  been  pictured  by  all  the  children  under 
their  typical  aspects,  each  child  is  encouraged  to  show 
something  mother  or  father  does;  or,  again,  while  all 
the  children  play  in  the  same  way  their  visit  to  a  toy- 
shop, each  child  selects  for  himself  the  toy  he  prefers 
and  invents  his  own  way  of  representing  it.  Finally, 
through  the  constant  free  selection  by  the  children  of 
preferred  typical  games,  native  tendencies  are  both 
revealed  and  developed. 

In  addition  to  free  play  and  typical  representa- 
tion the  Froebelian  kindergartner  frankly  accepts  that 
form  of  symbolism  described  as  correspondence.  Re- 
verting to  the  definition  of  a  symbol,  we  read  in  the 
Standard  Dictionary  that  it  is  "something  (not  a 
portrait)  that  stands  for  something  else  and  serves 
either  to  represent  it  or  to  bring  to  mind  one  or  more 
of  its  qualities;  especially  something  so  used  to  repre- 
sent or  suggest  that  which  is  not  capable  of  portraiture, 
as  an  idea,  a  quality,  state,  or  action.  Thus  the  oak  is  a 
symbol  of  strength,  the  sword  of  slaughter,  the  trident 
of  Neptune,  white  of  purity." 

It  is  only  necessary  to  reflect  for  a  single  moment 
upon  these  several  illustrations  of  a  symbol  to  become 
aware  of  differences  in  the  ties  by  which  they  are 


118  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

related  to  the  objects,  persons,  or  qualities  which  they 
are  said  to  symbolize.  The  oak  symbolizes  strength 
and  the  sword  slaughter  because  the  former  is  very 
strong  and  the  latter  was  for  many  ages  the  matchless 
death-dealing  weapon;  the  trident  symbolizes  Neptune 
because  it  was  the  instrument  conferred  upon  him  by 
mythology  as  an  expression  of  his  dominion  over  the 
sea;  white  symbolizes  purity  because  both  imply  the 
idea  of  stainlessness.  Two  of  these  symbols  —  the  oak 
and  the  sword  —  are  what  we  have  called  typical 
objects;1  one  —  the  trident — is  connected  with  its 
object  by  the  tie  of  an  exclusive  association;  one  — 
whiteness  —  is  a  physical  quality  connected  with  a 
spiritual  quality  through  the  analogical  tie  of  stain- 
lessness. 

With  the  single  exception  of  the  flag,  which  is 
rather  a  sign  than  a  symbol,  the  kindergarten  avoids 
the  tie  of  conventional  association  between  represent- 
ing and  represented  objects.  Its  types  are  concrete 
illustrations  of  human  values,  and  its  activities,  there- 
fore, contribute  to  the  development  of  those  valid 
objective  concepts  in  which  all  individuals  may  partici- 
pate. To  these  typical  activities  it  adds  representa- 
tions wherein  the  tie  between  the  representing  .and 
represented  objects  is  like  that  between  whiteness  and 
purity,  and  which  fall  under  the  more  restricted  defini- 
tion of  a  symbol  as  a  natural  object,  action,  or  event 
which  is  analogically  related  to  some  spiritual  fact  or 
process. 

The  significance  of  that  form  of  symbolism  which 

1  In  such  expressions  as  "heart  of  oak"  the  symbolism  is  of  the 
type  to  be  defined  a*  correspondence.  • 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  119 

deals  with  concrete  types  is  that  through  it  mind  makes 
the  transition  from  the  mental  image  to  the  concept. 
The  significance  of  that  form  of  symbolism  defined  as 
correspondence  is  that  through  it  mind  makes  the 
transition  from  concepts  of  material  objects,  actions, 
and  processes  to  their  spiritual  counterparts. 

The  researches  of  comparative  philologists  prove 
that  all  words  expressive  of  immaterial  conceptions 
were  originally  derived  by  metaphor  from  words 
expressive  of  sensuous  ideas  and  it  is  recognized  by 
all  students  of  language  that  without  the  analogizing 
activity  of  mind  speech  could  never  have  progressed 
beyond  the  merest  rudiments.  To  the  same  analogiz- 
ing activity  written  language  owes  the  hieroglyph. 
Metaphor  and  hieroglyph  which  interpret  spirit  in 
terms  of  nature  have  their  counterpart  in  animism 
which  interprets  nature  in  terms  of  spirit.  Out  of  the 
union  of  metaphor  and  animism  arose  the  great  myths 
which  embody  man's  first  discovery  of  his  own  essen- 
tial nature.  Intuition  of  the  correspondences  between 
nature  and  the  soul  still  creates  the  poet  and  enables 
him  to  "call  the  particular  fact  to  its  universal  conse- 
cration." 

Since  analogizing  activity  has  played  such  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  mental  development  of  the  race,  it 
would  be  passing  strange  if  it  played  no  part  in  the 
mental  evolution  of  the  individual.  If,  perchance,  it 
be  an  important  ally  in  the  process  of  mental  develop- 
ment, it  would  seem  that  its  influence  should  not  be 
ignored  in  education.  Recent  studies  of  dreams  go  far 
to  show  that  the  tie  of  analogy  between  mental  and 
physical  facts  has  a  preponderating  effect  in  detcrinin- 


140  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

ing  the  character  of  men's  nightly  visions.1  They  also 
suggest  that  in  this  as  in  all  forms  of  symbolism  the 
particular  ties  selected  throw  light  on  individual  char- 
acter and  history,  and  they  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  a  favorable  bias  might  be  given  to  character  by  an 
early  direction  of  attention  to  those  simple  and  noble 
analogies  between  nature  and  the  mind  which  most 
'/powerfully  affected  imagination  during  the  long  child- 
hood of  the  human  race. 

Let  us  approach  this  most  difficult  phase  of  kinder- 
garten symbolism  by  considering  some  of  its  wider 
implications.  Few  persons  will  deny  that  children 
respond  by  alterations  of  mood  to  alterations  of 
weather  and  season.  Thunder,  lightning,  and  the 
darkness  so  strange  to  day,  call  forth  a  mood  very 
different  from  that  which  springs  responsive  to  sun- 
shine and  blue  sky.  The  emotional  undertone  of  the 
springtime  is  different  from  that  of  winter.  Something 
buds  in  the  hearts  of  children  in  response  to  the  bud- 
ding life  around  them,  and  nature  calls  them  to  the 
park  and  field  as  she  calls  young  lambs  to  the  meadow. 
To  take  a  narrower  but  scarcely  less  important  illus- 
tration, we  all  know  that  children  react  to  order  with 
serenity  and  are  ruffled  by  disorder,  and  perhaps  most 
of  us  know  both  from  happy  and  humiliating  experi- 
ence how  immediately  children  are  affected  by  the 
spiritual  atmosphere  created  by  our  own  mental 
states.  Complementary  to  these  responses  of  child- 
hood to  environmental  influence  is  the  tendency  com- 

1  Prof.  Dr.  Sigm.  Freud,  Die  Traumdevtung;  Dr.  Karl  Abraham, 
Traum  und  Mythe;  Otto  Rank,  Die  Mythen  von  der  Getmrt  dc* 
Udden. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  121 

mon  to  all  children  to  impute  to  objects  around  them 
a  life  akin  to  their  own.  It  is  only  drawing  from  these 
familiar  facts  their  further  conclusions  when  Froebel 
urges  that,  through  light,  shadow,  star,  moon,  and 
wind  plays,  we  may  deepen  the  influence  of  these  great 
phenomena,  and  by  directing  sympathetic  attention 
to  then*  significant  aspects  revive  in  the  children  of 
each  new  generation  the  great  mythic  experience  of 
the  race.  It  is  only  trusting  analogizing  activity  a 
little  further  when  he  claims  that  the  apparently  free 
flight  of  the  bird  may  stir  obscurely  the  feeling  of  free- 
dom. It  is  only  believing  a  little  more  consistently  in 
the  influence  of  an  orderly  environment  when  he  in- 
sists that  by  the  use  of  an  organically  related  material 
children  develop  in  their  own  minds  a  sense  of  essential 
relations.  It  is  only  an  attempt  to  meet  that  crav- 
ing of  the  spirit  for  self-revelation  and  self-discovery 
which  created  the  animistic  interpretation  of  nature 
when  he  offers  a  series  of  playthings  which  are  an  objec- 
tive counterpart  to  the  process  of  mental  development. 
Several  reasons  have  conspired  to  prevent  the  gen- 
eral acceptance  of  this  particular  form  of  kindergarten 
symbolism.  Perhaps  the  reason  which  has  consciously 
exercised  the  widest  deterrent  influence  is  that  the  sug- 
gestion of  analogies  has  been  construed  to  mean  the 
interpretation  of  analogies.  The  truth  is  that  the 
analogy  itself  is  an  initial  phase  in  the  process  of 
definition.  When  one  savage  says  of  another  that  he  is 
foxy,  he  has  connected  the  animal  and  the  man  by  the 
characteristic  which  is  later  defined  as  cunning.  When 
primitive  man  calls  his  own  breath,  wind,  he  has  caught 
his  first  far-off  glimpse  of  spirit. 


122  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

The  kindergartner  who  believes  in  the  use  of  natural 
analogies  as  helps  in  the  evolution  of  spiritual  ideas 
simply  recapitulates  this  historic  process.  Her  method 
is,  first,  to  seek  a  point  of  contact  with  experience, 
then  to  play  a  game  which  throws  into  relief  the  salient 
feature  of  such  experience,  and  finally  to  suggest  its 
implicit  analogy.  For  example,  on  some  auspicious 
morning  the  children  come  to  the  kindergarten  ting- 
ling with  excitement  over  their  battle  with  the  wind, 
and  eager  to  tell  how  it  blew  off  their  hats,  made  their 
hair  fly,  and  almost  threw  them  to  the  ground.  This 
experience  gives  the  wise  kindergartner  her  point  of 
departure  for  games  like  the  Weather- Vane,  the  wind- 
blown trees,  and  the  flying  of  kites.  Following  the 
representation  of  wind-blown  objects  a  picture  is 
shown  which  suggests  many  more  things  the  wind 
does.  A  story  is  told  of  an  invisible  giant  and  his 
mighty  deeds.  The  minds  of  the  children  are  stirred 
to  wonder  and  they  question  what  the  wind  is  and 
whence  it  comes.  Their  question  is  answered  by  the 
suggestion  of  an  analogy  whose  aim  is  simply  to  quicken 
the  feeling  of  faith  in  invisible  power.  "You  cannot 
understand  now  what  the  wind  is  nor  where  it  comes 
from,  but  you  see  what  it  does.  Look  —  your  own 
little  hands  move,  but  you  cannot  see  what  moves 
them." 

As  an  actual  encounter  with  the  wind  gives  the  point 
of  departure  for  the  Weather- Vane  and  its  allied  games, 
so  a  day  of  brilliant  winter  sunlight  after  days  of 
depressing  cloud  gives  the  point  of  departure  for  the 
play  of  the  Light-Bird.  No  kindergartner  who  has 
watched  little  children  play  this  game  can  doubt  the 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  123 

eagerness  with  which  they  try  to  catch  the  flickering 
reflection  or  question  their  faith  that  it  may  be  caught. 
When  after  vain  experiment  they  give  up  the  impos- 
sible attempt,  they  are  gladdened  by  the  suggestion 
that  though  they  cannot  catch  it  with  then*  hands  ,  ,, 
they  may  catch  it  with  then-  eyes,  and  so,  too,  they 
may  catch  the  rainbow,  the  sunset,  the  beautiful 
colors  of  flowers,  the  blue  sky,  the  dear  faces  and  smiles 
of  father  and  mother. 

One  more  illustration  must  suffice  to  suggest  the 
way  in  which  the  Froebelian  kindergartner  uses  analo- 
gies. In  the  early  fall  the  children  learn  the  games 
of  the  baker,  miller,  and  farmer,  in  each  one  of  which 
is  represented  a  series  of  activities.  During  this  same 
period  they  learn  to  make  different  kinds  of  chains. 
On  some  morning  when  they  are  patiently  adding  link 
to  link  comes  the  suggestion,  Let  us  make  another 
kind  of  chain,  and  the  effort  to  stimulate  relating 
activity  by  leading  to  a  more  conscious  representation 
of  the  links  in  that  chain  of  service  at  one  end  of  which 
is  the  breakfast  roll  and  at  the  other  the  farmer  sow- 
ing grain.  To  dramatic  representation  follows  the 
drawing  of  chain  pictures.  The  unmistakable  result  is 
the  direction  of  selective  interest  to  relations  and 
processes. 

The  signers  of  this  report  are  convinced  by  long 
experience  that  acts  of  analogizing  like  those  de-     • 
scribed  are  among  the  most  important  of  all  forms  of  •' 
kindergarten  symbolism. 

A  second  reason  which  has  deterred  some  kinder- 
gartners  from  the  use  of  analogies  is  that  recognition 
of  the  value  of  correspondences  has  been  erroneously 


124  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

supposed  to  carry  with  it  acceptance  of  the  Sweden- 
borgian  doctrine  of  correspondence,  according  to 
which  each  particular  object  of  nature  is  exclusively 
related  to  a  particular  phenomenon  of  mind.  It  seems, 
therefore,  well  to  state  that  the  Froebelian  use  of 
correspondences  implies  no  such  exclusive  tie,  but 
holds,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  same  mental  phenome- 
non may  be  adumbrated  by  different  natural  images, 
and  that  the  same  physical  image  seized  under  differ- 
ent aspects  corresponds  to  different  phenomena  of 
mind.  The  Froebelian  procedure  implies  nothing 
beyond  what  is  implied  in  metaphor,  trope,  simile, 
personification,  myth,  fable,  allegory,  and  all  poetry. 
The  final  source  of  prejudice  against  that  form  of 
symbolism  defined  as  correspondence  is  undoubtedly 
antagonism  to  the  particular  correspondences  sug- 
gested by  Froebel  in  the  kindergarten  gifts.  The  atti- 
tude of  any  kindergartner  towards  these  disputed 
counterparts  will  be  largely  determined  by  her  accept- 
ance or  rejection  of  the  insight  to  which  Froebel  gave 
the  name  Mediation  of  Opposites  and  which  has  been 
explained  in  this  report  as  identical  with  the  insight 
defined  in  Hegelian  terminology  as  the  self-relation 
'tof  the  negative.  Since  we  are  anxious  to  evade  no 
question  whose  divergent  solutions  tend  to  produce 
contrasting  types  of  kindergartens,  our  next  task  shall 
be  to  explain  the  relation  of  this  insight  to  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Froebelian  gifts.  Before  attempting  this 
explanation,  however,  we  desire  to  avow  our  convic- 
tion that  insight  into  the  form  of  mind  is  of  far  more 
urgent  necessity  than  acceptance  of  any  specific  appli- 
cation of  this  insight,  and  to  confess  our  belief  that 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  125 

among  the  applications  made  by  Froebel  the  most 
notable  are  the  mediation  of  the  individual  and  the 
social  whole  in  the  embryonic  community  of  the  kin- 
dergarten; the  mediation  of  substantial  and  formal 
freedom  achieved  by  freighting  play  with  the  great 
human  values;  the  mediation  of  image  and  idea 
through  typical  facts;  and  the  mediation  of  material 
and  spiritual  concepts  through  carefully  selected 
analogies. 

THE  KINDERGARTEN   GIFTS 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  in  detail  one  value  of  the 
kindergarten  gifts  without  seeming  to  imply  an  empha- 
sis which  we  should  deplore.  We  therefore  preface  our 
discussion  of  the  organizing  principle  of  the  gifts  by  a 
statement  of  the  several  values  which  we  accept  in 
common  with  other  kindergartners. 

The  kindergarten  gifts  are  first  of  all  playthings. 
They  offer  material  for  building,  for  plane,  linear,  and 
point  representation;  for  various  forms  of  constructive 
activity  and  for  plastic  production  of  different  kinds. 
Among  their  values,  that  which  is  both  primary  and 
greatest  is  that  they  incite  and  develop  creative  activ- 
ity. 

The  kindergarten  gifts  are  playthings  through  which 
approaches  are  made  towards  the  several  industries 
and  fine  arts.  Of  especial  value  are  the  approaches 
towards  sewing,  embroidery,  weaving,  basket-making, 
and  pottery  among  the  industries,  and  towards  archi- 
tecture, sculpture,  drawing,  and  painting  among  the 
arts. 

The  several  values  above  mentioned  are  accepted 


126  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

by  all  kindergartners  who  do  not  discard  the  Froe- 
belian  instrumentalities  either  in  whole  or  in  part.  The 
signers  of  this  report  hold  further  that  these  instru- 
mentalities open  the  best  path  of  approach  thus  far 
broken  towards  the  great  value  of  mathematics.  It 
will  be  necessary  to  consider  this  approach  in  and  for 
itself  before  we  can  describe  intelligibly  the  symbol- 
ism of  the  kindergarten  gifts. 

The  creative  idea  of  the  kindergarten  is  that  what  the 
child  does  will  determine  both  what  he  observes  and 
what  he  becomes.  If,  therefore,  in  his  play  he  recur- 
rently produces  geometric  forms  and  recurrently 
changes  one  form  into  another,  he  will  become  inter- 
ested in  these  forms  and  their  relations  and  will  be 
quick  to  recognize  similar  forms  and  relations  in  his 
environment. 

As  planned  by  Froebel  the  kindergarten  gifts  offered 
a  fairly  complete  introduction  to  geometric  forms  and 
their  interrelations.  Through  playing  with  these  forms, 
furthermore,  children  were  constantly  incited  to  no- 
tice their  plane  and  linear  boundaries,  the  intersec- 
tion of  lines,  and  the  several  kinds  of  angles.  Atten- 
tion was  also  necessarily  directed  to  numerical  facts 
and  relations,  and  finally  the  very  important  concept 
of  ratio  was  illustrated  through  perceptions  of  propor- 
tionate sizes. 

The  mathematical  basis  of  the  Froebelian  gifts  needs 
no  justification  or  defense,  for  all  productive  activity 
demands  this  basis  and  so  does  every  effort  to  increase 
the  power  of  rapid  and  exact  sense-perception.  The 
world  presents  itself  to  sense  as  a  complex  of  diverse 
forms.  Differences  in  these  forms  can  be  grasped 

V 


/    1,  V»~ 

4  %  J 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  127 

sharply  and  spontaneously  only  by  a  mind  furnished 
with  discriminating  concepts.  "All  that  the  greatest 
minds  of  all  the  ages  have  done  toward  the  apper- 
ception of  form  through  concepts  we  find  gathered 
into  a  single  great  science  —  mathematics."  1 

The  kindergarten  gifts  suggest  an  idea  which  they 
do  not  completely  exemplify.  The  history  of  the 
kindergarten  movement  in  the  United  States  has  been 
characterized  by  two  streams  of  tendency;  one  towards 
the  entire  elimination  of  this  informing  idea  and  the 
other  towards  its  more  adequate  embodiment.  Kin- 
dergartners  who  have  been  swept  into  the  former 
stream  prove  the  trend  of  their  thought,  first,  by  elim- 
inating forms  of  knowledge  and,  second,  by  eliminating 
a  number  of  the  Froebelian  gifts.  Kindergartners  who 
represent  the  second  tendency  make  recurrent  efforts 
to  develop  further  implications  of  the  one  informing 
idea  by  additions  to  the  Froebelian  instrumentalities 
and  by  a  systematic  evolution  of  peas-work,  clay  and 
cardboard  modeling.2 

In  1906,  Miss  M.  M.  Glidden  published  a  mono- 
graph which  has  greatly  helped  to  clarify  the  idea 
embodied  in  the  kindergarten  gifts.  The  author  had 
found  in  Froebel's  personal  diary  a  note  dated  July, 
1836,  describing  a  series  of  cuts  by  means  of  which 
the  cube  was  divided  into  six  tetrahedra.  The  cuts 

1  Herbart's  A   B   C  of  Sense-Perception  (William  J.  Eckoff), 
p.  143. 

2  It  is  impossible  to  accomplish  in  the  kindergarten  all  that 
Froebel  desired  to  accomplish  through  the  use  of  his  gifts  and  occu- 
pations. The  signers  of  this  report  believe  that  there  should  be  an 
extension  of  Froebelian  ideals  and  instrumentalities  into  the  ele- 
mentary school. 


128  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

are  described  by  Miss  Glidden  as  follows:  "Plac- 
ing the  knife  upon  the  diagonal  of  the  square  surface 
of  the  cube  and  cutting  part  way  down,  so  that  a  line 
is  made  connecting  diagonally  opposite  corners  of  the 
cube,  and  treating  each  surface  of  the  cube  in  the  same 
way,  the  cube  will  be  divided  into  three  equal  irregular 
square  pyramids.  The  base  of  each  of  these  is  the 
square  face  of  the  cube.  Two  faces  are  right  isosceles 
triangles,  two  others  are  obtuse  scalene  triangles.  If 
each  of  these  parts  be  split  down  the  center,  the  cube 
will  be  divided  into  sixths"  (tetrahedra).1 

Convinced  by  her  studies  of  Froebel  that  this  note 
suggests  the  division  of  the  cube  which  he  intended 
to  carry  out  in  his  Seventh  Gift,  Miss  Glidden  makes 
the  following  comment  upon  her  discovery:  "At  first 
glance,  the  Seventh  Gift  appears  uninteresting  and  of 
little  value.  The  odd,  wedge-shaped  pieces  suggest 
little,  but  when  one  sees  that  the  solid  angles  shown 
in  the  interior  of  the  Seventh  Gift  are  the  same  as  the 
exterior  angles  of  such  a  form  as  the  pentagonal  dode- 
cahedron, one  begins  to  think  possibly  there  is  more  in 
it.  When  one  finds  that  whatever  the  exterior  angles  of 
a  mathematical  form  may  be,  it  may  always  be  found 
in  the  interior  of  a  rectilinear  form  by  applying  the 
Seventh  Gift  cut,  one  feels  that  he  has  discovered  a 
principle.  And  again,  when  one  finds  that  the  ultimate 
unit  of  the  Seventh  Gift,  an  irregular  tetrahedron,  is 
the  form  into  a  certain  number  of  which  all  mathe- 
matical solids  can  be  resolved,  one  could  shout  with 
Froebel,  'Eureka!  I  have  it!'  It  is  a  universal  mathe- 

1  M.  M.  Glidden,  A  Mathematical  Study,  Froebeft  Building  Gift*, 
Seventh  and  Eighth,  pp.  14,  15. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  129 

matical  element;  this  is  the  key  which  unlocks  all 
mathematical  form."  l 

The  value  of  the  Seventh  Gift  lies  in  the  method 
of  cutting  which  it  suggests.  It  is  by  applying  this 
cut  to  other  rectilinear  solids  that  the  variously  pro- 
portioned tetrahedra  are  found,  into  certain  numbers 
of  which  all  mathematical  solids  may  be  analyzed. 
These  tetrahedra  are,  therefore,  a  medium  of  exchange 
and  comparison  between  different  solids.  To  quote 
Miss  Glidden  once  more:  — 

"The  inner  diagonal  lines  shown  by  the  cut  of  the 
Seventh  Gift  become  the  outer  angles  of  any  regular 
mathematical  solid  which  has  axes  of  approximately 
equal  length.  The  slant  of  the  outer  angle  depends 
upon  the  proportions  of  the  rectilinear  solid  to  which 
the  Seventh  Gift  cut  is  applied.  This  makes  it  possible 
to  easily  build  up  complex  mathematical  forms  or  with 
equal  ease  to  analyze  them,  and  secures  to  the  one  who 
makes  this  study  an  unusual  knowledge  of  mathemat- 
ical form,  size,  relative  proportion,  and  the  mental 
development  that  goes  with  it." 

"If  a  complex  solid  like  a  pentagonal  dodecahedron 
can  be  made  easily  to  take  the  form  of  a  rectilinear 
plinth,  its  cubic  contents  can  be  ascertained  at  a  glance; 
and  if  this  rectilinear  prism  (analyzed  in  a  similar  but 
not  identical  manner)  can  be  rebuilt  in  other  forms,  — 
for  example,  an  octahedron  or  isosahedron,  —  then 
a  bridge  between  these  forms  has  been  found  and  their 
relation  to  each  other  may  easily  be  seen." 

"Every  mathematical  solid  can  be  resolved  into 

1  M.  M.  Glidden,  A  Mathematical  Study,  Seventh  and  Eighth 
Gifts,  pp.  6-7. 


130  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

tetrahedra,  similar  to  those  of  the  Seventh  Gift,  when 
it  is  divided  into  sixths.  The  proportions  of  the  sides 
of  the  tetrahedra  may  vary  in  different  forms,  but 
the  fundamental  shape  is  the  same.  These  tetrahedra 
may,  therefore,  be  considered  as  universal  units,  ele- 
ments, the  simplest  units  into  which  mathematical 
forms  can  be  analyzed."  l 

The  Seventh  Gift  cut  does  not  explain  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  kindergarten  gifts,  but  it  tells  us  that  Froebel 
is  trying  to  find  some  clew  to  the  genesis  and  evolution 
of  form  and  to  the  relations  between  different  forms. 
When  we  have  analyzed  a  number  of  solids  into  these 
little  tetrahedra,  built  up  a  number  of  solids  from 
them  and  used  them  as  a  medium  of  exchange  and 
comparison  between  different  solids,  we  can  never 
again  see  these  solids  either  as  fixed  or  as  isolated. 
Each  one  of  them  has  revealed  itself  as  one  phase  of  a 
formative  process  and  as  an  integral  member  of  a  re- 
lated series  of  forms. 

The  series  of  forms  whose  genesis,  evolution,  and 
interrelation  are  suggested  by  the  application  of  the 
Seventh  Gift  cut  are  all  bounded  by  planes.  There  are, 
however,  a  number  of  geometric  solids  bounded  by 
curves,  and  there  are  others  bounded  partly  by  curved 
and  partly  by  plane  faces.  Are  these  solids,  therefore, 
to  be  considered  as  belonging  to  three  distinct  series 
or  is  it  possible  that  all  geometric  forms  are  members 
of  a  single  system?  We  notice  that  as  we  increase  the 
number  of  sides  on  a  plane  figure  it  approximates  in 
shape  to  a  circle,  and  that  as  we  increase  the  number  of 

1  M.  M.  Glidden,  A  Mathematical  Study,  Seventh  and  Eighth 
Gift*,  p.  26. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  131 

faces  on  a  polyhedron  it  approximates  in  shape  to  a 
sphere.  Defining  a  circle  as  a  polygon  having  an  in- 
finite number  of  sides,  and  a  sphere  as  a  polyhedron 
having  an  infinite  number  of  faces,  we  get  our  first  clew 
to  the  organization  of  the  kindergarten  gifts,  which 
is  that  they  illustrate,  in  the  evolution  of  geometric 
forms,  the  general  law  of  advance  from  an  undifferen- 
tiated  unit  to  those  highly  complex  wholes  wherein 
the  most  perfect  unity  is  achieved  through  infinite  dif- 
ferentiation and  integration.  For  this  reason  the  kin- 
dergarten gifts  move  from  the  sphere  conceived  as 
excluding  to  the  sphere  conceived  as  including  all  pos- 
sible faces,  corners,  and  edges,  and  to  this  movement 
of  solid  from  sphere  to  sphere  corresponds  the  evolu- 
tion of  geometric  planes  wherein  the  circle  is  both  the 
terminus  ab  quo  and  the  terminus  ad  quern  of  a  genera- 
tive process,  and  the  movement  of  lines  from  the  curve 
with  return  thereto  through  the  intersection  of  straight 
lines  of  different  inclinations.  Each  solid,  plane,  and 
line  is,  therefore,  apprehended  not  in  detached  and 
solitary  independence,  but  as  an  integral  member  of 
a  related  series.  The  exact  place  of  each  solid  in  the 
series  is  determined  by  its  greater  or  lesser  approxim- 
ation to  the  sphere,  the  exact  place  of  each  plane  by 
its  greater  or  lesser  approximation  to  the  circle. 

The  second  clue  to  the  organization  of  the  kinder- 
garten gifts  is  suggested  by  the  order  of  their  presen- 
tation. For  while,  as  has  been  explained,  the  organiza- 
tion of  geometric  forms  into  a  system  is  made  possible 
by  the  conception  of  the  sphere  as  both  their  procreant 
ideal  and  their  final  goal,  the  order  in  which  the  differ- 
ent forms  are  made  known  is  determined  by  the  insight 


132  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

to  which  Froebel  gave  the  name  Mediation  of  Oppo- 
sites,  and  which,  as  applied  in  the  kindergarten,  de- 
mands the  presentation  of  contrasting  extremes  of 
form  and  the  gradual  elimination  of  the  antitheses 
through  an  intermediate  series.  Thus  the  solid  gifts 
posit  and  annul  the  antitheses  of  sphere  and  cube; 
the  planes  posit  and  annul  the  antitheses  of  circle 
and  square;  and  the  linear  gifts  first  accentuate  and 
then  cancel  the  seemingly  excluding  extremes  of 
curved  and  straight  lines. 

In  Froebel's  conception  all  forms  are  products  of 
indwelling  force.  If  unimpeded  in  its  activity,  this 
force  would  diffuse  itself  equally  hi  all  directions,  and 
its  most  perfect  material  expression,  therefore,  is  the 
sphere.  In  nature's  geometry,  as  written  in  crystal 
forms,  we  behold  the  progressive  attempt  of  indwelling 
force  to  realize  its  spherical  ideal.  Since,  however,  this 
indwelling  force  is  correlated  with  other  forces  which 
hold  it  in  tensions  of  varying  degree,  it  must  manifest 
its  spherical  tendency  by  giving  rise  to  a  series  of 
forms  which  exhibit  an  advance  from  particular- 
sidedness  toward  all-sidedness,  and  hence,  departing 
from  rectilinear,  strive  incessantly  to  approach  curved 
outlines.  The  significant  feature  of  this  process  is  that 
in  its  effort  to  make  a  sphere,  force  begins  by  making 
its  opposite,  and  only  by  a  progressive  annulment  of 
rectilinear  limitation  does  it  finally  achieve  its  ideal 
incarnation.  This  natural  evolution  of  sphericity 
through  the  positing  and  annulment  of  limitation  is 
precisely  repeated  in  the  kindergarten,  and  since  each 
illustration  of  a  truth  is  one  step  toward  its  adequate 
apprehension  and  definition,  the  gifts  undoubtedly 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  133 

build  a  bridge  over  which,  within  the  limits  of  their 
own  petty  experience,  children  may  pass  from  the  con- 
ception of  mutually  excluding  extremes  to  the  con- 
ception of  a  single  ascending  order. 

Acceptance  of  the  organizing  idea  of  the  kinder- 
garten gifts  does  not  necessarily  carry  with  it  accept- 
ance of  FroebePs  guess  with  regard  to  the  genesis  of 
crystal  forms.  That  guess  was  not  a  scientific  hypoth- 
esis, but  an  act  of  poetic  analogizing.  It  is  interesting, 
however,  to  remind  ourselves  that  from  contemporary 
crystallography  we  hear  of  "sterile  liquids  containing 
substances  in  solution  that  require  the  presence  of  a 
crystalline  'germ '  to  bring  about  the  birth  of  crystals." 
It  is  also  worthy  of  mention  that  the  new  science  of 
plasmology  would  seem  to  be  rapidly  establishing  the 
fact  that  form  and  structure  are  due  to  the  interplay 
of  different  forces. 

The  mathematical  values  of  the  Froebelian  gifts  are 
that  they  throw  into  relief  the  self-relations  of  detached 
forms  and  the  interrelations  between  different  forms; 
that  they  express  all  these  relations  in  terms  of  number; 
and  that  they  direct  attention  to  formative  and  trans- 
forming activities.  If  science  means  seeking  essential 
relations  and  discovering  totalities,  then  Froebel's 
procedure  is  truly  scientific  and  the  wise  use  of  his  in- 
strumentalities will  tend  to  develop  the  scientific  habit 
of  mind.  In  connection  with  the  use  of  the  gifts  changes 
of  form  in  natural  objects  should  be  noticed,  for  ex- 
ample, the  rounding  of  pebbles  by  the  action  of  water, 
the  manifold  alterations  of  form  in  bubbles  caused  by 
reciprocal  pressure,  the  "flattening  of  chestnuts  in 
their  cases,  of  peas  in  their  pods,  and  of  sheaves  of 


134  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

straw  in  piles;  the  difference  between  the  round  cell  of 
the  solitary  bee  and  the  cells  in  a  hive  where  pressure 
on  space  has  straightened  out  the  sides  of  the  cells 
until  the  limiting  form  —  the  hexagon  —  is  reached."1 
Finally,  mathematical  imagination  should  be  stimu- 
lated by  directing  attention  to  "the  fluidity  and  inter- 
changeableness  of  natural  curves,"  such  as  the  reflec- 
tion curves  "made  by  the  sunlight  falling  on  moving 
liquids  or  the  light-curves  at  the  bottom  of  a  clear 
stream  caused  by  the  ripples  on  the  top." 2 

When  we  understand  the  organizing  idea  of  the 
kindergarten  gifts,  it  is  very  easy  to  interpret  their 
symbolism.  Since  they  furnish  a  concrete  example 
of  that  evolutionary  process  which  exhibits  a  change 
from  an  "indefinite,  incoherent  homogeneity  to  a 
definite,  coherent  heterogeneity,"  they  belong  among 
the  symbols  defined  in  kindergarten  terminology  as 
typical  acts,  facts,  characters,  relations,  and  processes. 
Since  the  process  exemplified  recapitulates  that  mode 
of  behavior  which  is  the  form  of  mind,  and  since  the 
child  participates  in  this  form,  the  organized  totality 
of  the  gifts  is  also  symbolic  in  the  sense  that  it  offers 
a  series  of  correspondences  to  his  own  self -developing 
activity.  It  is  not  asserted  that  the  child  is  aware  of 
these  correspondences.  The  claim  is  simply  that  he 
enjoys  and  readily  apprehends  what  agrees  with  his 
own  inherent  form.  In  the  kindergarten  gifts  as  in  a 
mirror  he  beholds  himself,  and  like  the  primal  self- 
activity  rejoices  in  his  own  image. 

It  has  been  claimed  as  one  of  the  great  discoveries 

1  M.  S.  Boole,  Preparation  of  the  Child  for  Science,  p.  126. 
•  Ibid.,  p.  113. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  135 

of  our  age  that  "Mathematics  is  Symbolic  Logic  and 
Symbolic  Logic  is  Mathematics."1  If  this  twain  be, 
indeed,  one,  and  if  recognition  of  then"  identity  be 
among  the  most  remarkable  of  contemporary  mental 
feats,  then  why  did  not  Froebel  make  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  education  when  he  made  it  possible  for 
little  children  to  illustrate,  in  the  evolution  of  arche- 
typal forms,  the  relations,  processes,  and  structure  of 
thought? 

The  structure  of  mind  is  the  most  potent  of  all  agencies 
in  determining  creative  activity.  It  is  also  the  most  potent 
of  all  apperceiving  agencies.  Until  these  insights  have 
become  wide  awake  in  our  own  minds,  we  do  not  know 
how  to  abet  the  self-developing  activity  of  childhood.  We 
thwart  the  strongest  of  all  native  tendencies,  and  by  forcing 
self-expression  into  artificial  paths  arrest  development. 

The  contentions  of  the  Froebelian  kindergartner  are 
that  play  with  organized  material  organizes  the  mind  and 
that  the  most  efficient  principle  of  organization  is  the  form 
or  law  of  mind  itself. 

Several  reasons  have  conspired  to  bring  the  kinder- 
garten gifts  into  disrepute  and  to  create  antagonism 
to  their  mathematical  basis,  their  organizing  principle, 
and  their  traditional  method  of  use.  The  first  of  these 
reasons  is  that,  while  the  mathematical  basis  of  the 
gifts  is  recognized,  it  is  not  clearly  conceived;  the  sec- 
ond, that,  while  the  plan  of  Froebel  for  the  true  use  of 
his  gifts  demands  at  least  four  years  for  its  realization, 
the  kindergarten  rarely  holds  its  children  for  more 
than  a  year;  the  third,  that  the  organizing  principle 
of  the  gifts  has  been  so  narrowly  conceived  as  to  lose 
1  Cassius  Jackson  Keyser,  Mathematics. 


136  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

all  its  significance;  and  the  fourth  and  final  reason, 
confusion  between  the  idea  of  projecting  in  images  the 
natural  logic  of  mind  and  the  very  different  idea  of 
making  children  logical  by  a  forced  and  unnatural 
method. 

With  this  discussion  of  the  Mediation  of  Opposites, 
as  illustrated  in  the  organization  of  the  kindergarten 
gifts,  we  complete  our  survey  of  the  genetic-developing 
method.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  presupposition  of 
the  method  is  life,  conceived  as  immediate  presentation 
and  immediate  response  to  this  presentation,  and  that 
its  goal  is  life  renewed,  transfigured,  and  unified.  It 
has  been  stated  that  its  point  of  departure  is  the  deed 
and  that  it  demands  those  introspective  and  retro- 
spective activities  through  which  the  deed  learns  to 
see  into  and  through  itself.  It  has  been  claimed  that 
during  the  period  of  early  childhood  the  highest  form 
of  the  deed  is  play  and  the  kindergarten  has  been 
defined  as  that  mode  of  education  which  freights  the 
form  of  play  with  the  values  of  human  life.  It  has  been 
further  shown  that  the  native  make-believe  play  of 
childhood  is  symbolic  in  its  form,  and  therefore  that 
in  the  use  of  symbolism  the  kindergarten  does  not 
impose  upon  play  something  foreign  to  its  spirit,  but 
borrows  its  own  characteristic  mode  of  expression. 
Finally,  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  suggest  that  the 
genetic-developing  method  is  simply  a  conscious  effort 
to  abet  the  native  movement  of  self-activity,  which, 
proceeding  from  the  deed,  advances  to  awareness  of 
its  results  and  its  process. 

If  the  kindergarten  is  ever  to  realize  its  own  ideal, 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  137 

its  representatives  must  have  a  clear  conception  of  the 
Gliedganzes;  must  appraise  educational  values  by  this 
criterion;  and  must  comprehend  that  genetic-develop- 
ing method  whose  aim  is  to  evolve  values  instead  of 
imposing  them.  Practice  must  shape  itself  differently 
as  values,  their  criterion,  and  their  method  of  devel- 
opment are  differently  conceived.  The  need  of  the 
present,  therefore,  is  the  discussion  of  these  several 
questions.  Any  external  uniformity  of  practice  not 
based  upon  a  common  vision  would  only  impede  the 
historic  development  of  the  kindergarten. 

It  is  because  we  crave  to  share  a  vision  which  has 
brought  inspiration  and  joy  to  us  that  we  have  given 
so  much  space  to  discussion  of  the  several  forms  of 
symbolism  in  their  relation  to  the  genetic-developing 
method.  It  is  for  the  same  reason  that  we  refrain  from 
any  attempt  to  justify  the  particular  symbols  preferred 
by  Froebel.  Our  present  effort  is  to  win  so  far  as  may 
be  recognition  of  principles  which  seem  to  us  funda- 
mental. When  these  principles  are  recognized,  we  shall 
heartily  cooperate  with  all  persons  who  may  be  striv- 
ing to  create  conforming  practice. 

The  aim  of  the  first  section  of  this  report  was  to 
describe  the  ideal  of  the  Gliedganzes  and  to  present  it 
as  the  realized  form  of  self-activity.  The  aim  of  the 
second  section  was  to  suggest  that  each  great  human 
value  is  an  approximate  definition  of  this  universal 
form.  The  aim  of  the  present  section  has  been  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  self -activity  is  not  only  its 
own  goal  and  its  own  standard,  but  also  its  own  method. 
The  aim  of  the  final  section  will  be  to  describe  the 
kindergarten  practice  which  seems  to  us  most  nearly 


138  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

in  conformity  with  its  one  great  principle.  While, 
however,  we  are  sure  of  our  principle,  we  are  equally 
sure  that  in  reducing  it  to  practice  we  must  have  done 
many  things  we  should  not  do  and  left  undone  many 
things  we  should  do.  We  are  ourselves  in  process  of 
development,  and  the  blindness  which  darkens  our 
minds  and  the  obduracy  which  clings  to  our  wills  must 
react  upon  our  practical  achievement.  Truth  is  final 
and  we  can  abate  no  jot  or  tittle  of  the  claim  we  make 
for  the  principle  of  self-activity.  Life,  on  the  contrary, 
is  a  dialectic  process  wherein  the  one  thing  permanent 
should  be  self-outgrowing.  Not  in  the  program  we 
shall  present,  nor  in  the  program  towards  which  we 
struggle  from  afar,  will  our  ideal  be  realized.  Yet  that 
ideal  will  forever  inspire  fresh  effort,  and  each  more 
approximate  realization  will  bring  clearer  vision  to  the 
kindergartner  and  purer  and  more  joyous  life  to  the 
little  child. 


PART  IV 

THE  KINDERGARTEN  PROGRAM 

THE  larger  sanction  of  the  kindergarten  is  to  be 
sought  in  its  contribution  to  the  building  of  character. 
During  the  period  of  early  childhood  mental  and  moral 
habits  are  being  formed  and  emotional  attitudes  are  es- 
tablishing themselves.  If,  in  these  early  years,  children 
are  not  trained  to  be  careful,  they  will  be  forming 
habits  of  carelessness;  if  they  are  not  learning  to  govern 
temper,  they  are  forming  a  habit  of  being  governed  by 
temper.  If  they  are  not  learning  to  be  industrious, 
punctual,  orderly,  clean,  kind,  and  courteous,  then 
they  are  confirming  disastrous  tendencies  towards 
idleness,  procrastination,  disorder,  uncleanliness,  self- 
ishness, and  rudeness.  In  these  early  years,  moreover, 
they  are  forming  intellectual  as  well  as  moral  habits. 
If  they  are  not  being  taught  to  "stop  and  think,"  they 
will  be  arrested  in  the  habit  of  heedlessness.  If  they 
are  not  cultivating  a  healthy  selective  interest,  they 
are  becoming  victims  of  whim  and  random  suggestion. 
If  they  are  not  filling  imagination  with  concrete  pictures 
of  purity,  beauty,  and  nobility,  then  they  are  sullying 
it  with  base  or  belittling  it  with  petty  images.  If  they 
are  not  learning  to  see  essential  relations,  they  are 
forming  the  habit  of  arbitrary  classification.  If  they 
are  not  learning  to  think  consecutively,  to  test  infer- 
ences, and  to  suspend  judgment,  then  they  are  drift- 


140  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

ing  into  mental  habits  of  superficiality,  precipitancy, 
and  reckless  analogizing,  and  preparing  themselves 
for  all  the  misery  attendant  upon  vibration  between 
the  extremes  of  intellectual  slavishness  and  intellectual 
anarchy.  Last  but  not  least,  all  little  children  are 
either  developing  an  emotional  undertone  correspond- 
ent to  ethical  ideals  or  sinking  into  slavery  to  the  unre- 
generate  impulses  which  antagonize  those  ideals. 

The  aim  of  the  kindergarten  program  is  develop- 
ment of  the  mental  and  moral  habits,  the  emotional 
undertone,  and  the  imaginative  vision  which  are  im- 
plied in  the  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes.  The 
object  of  all  education  is  to  help  the  pupil  to  find  him- 
self as  a  whole  and  also  as  a  single  member  of  the  great 
living  whole  —  God,  nature,  and  humanity.  As  an 
integral  phase  of  the  general  educational  process  the 
kindergarten  accepts  this  common  aim  and  moves 
towards  its  realization  in  ways  determined  by  the 
psychologic  order  of  development. 

The  ideal  of  the  Gliedganzes  must  be  clearly  dis- 
tinguished from  the  ideal  of  social  efficiency.  The 
words  social  efficiency  imply  a  giver  but  not  a  receiver 
—  a  man  equipped  for  leadership  but  not  himself  in 
need  of  help.  The  kindergarten  ideal  may  be  more 
nearly  stated  as  social  reciprocity.  But  all  statements 
which  fail  to  throw  into  clear  relief  relationship  to  God 
and  to  nature,  as  well  as  relationship  to  man,  fall  short 
of  the  ideal  of  education  as  determined  by  the  concep- 
tion of  the  Gliedganzes. 

In  the  first  section  of  this  report  an  effort  was  made 
to  show  that  all  great  educational  values  are  approxi- 
mate revelations  of  the  Gliedganzes.  Three  attitudes 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  141 

may  be  taken  towards  these  values.  They  may  be 
denied  or  ignored;  they  may  be  imposed;  or,  finally, 
their  native  process  of  self-unfolding  may  be  abetted. 
The  kindergarten  chooses  the  third  attitude.  It  helps 
children  to  do  better  what  they  themselves  are  blindly 
trying  to  do.  Therefore,  it  quickens  within  them  both 
a  faint  awareness  of  their  own  inner  life  and  trust  in 
those  who  are  responding  to  this  craving.1 

As  the  aim  of  the  kindergarten  is  determined  by  the 
conception  of  the  Gliedganzes,  so  its  practical  attempts 
to  carry  out  this  aim  are  determined  by  the  genetic- 
developing  method.  The  first  emphasis  of  this  method 

1  "First  of  all,"  writes  Froebel,  "and  before  any  other  reflection 
from  without  comes  to  the  child,  the  following  observation  as  the 
sun  of  his  whole  future  life  must  shine  upon  him  and  warm  him  — 
the  reflection  that  the  fostering  care,  the  development  and  formation, 
the  realization  of  my  inmost  life  as  a  whole  in  itself,  and  as  a  member 
of  a  great  living  whole,  is  the  object  of  all  which  is  done  for  me  from 
without;  of  all  which  is  done  for  me  by  older  people,  and  especially 
of  all  which  is  done  for  me  by  my  parents.  If  now  the  lively  appreci- 
ation of  what  has  been  done  to  cultivate  his  inner  world  by  parents 
and  other  people  fill  the  soul  of  the  child  so  that  he  may  feel  and  find 
himself  at  the  same  time  as  a  whole  and  also  a  single  member  of  a  higher 
life  unity,  then  will  true  love  and  gratitude  toward  his  parents,  re- 
spect and  veneration  for  age,  germinate  in  the  mind  of  the  child. 
Then  will  the  vivifying  anticipation  of  the  lovingly  pervading  unity 
and  fount  of  all  life  blossom  in  his  soul,  and  bear  imperishable  fruits 
in  his  character,  and  be  an  abiding  quality  of  his  action. 

"To  assist  parents  and  children  to  obtain  these  highest  gifts  and 
blessings  of  life  is  the  single  and  innermost  aim  of  these  plays  and 
means  of  employment."  (Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten,  pp.  114, 
115.) 

The  most  important  statement  in  this  passage  is  that  the  child 
is  to  be  so  treated  that  he  will  feel  that  what  is  being  done  for  him 
corresponds  with  his  own  inmost  nature  and  needs.  This  demand  and 
the  effort  to  meet  it  constitutes  one  of  the  most  distinctive  peculiari- 
ties of  the  Froebelian  method. 


142  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

is  upon  self-expression  in  the  form  of  typical  deeds. 
Its  second  emphasis  is  upon  those  introspective  and 
retrospective  activities  through  which  children  gain 
their  first  awareness  of  the  results  and  process  of  self- 
expression.  It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that,  con- 
ceived in  its  entirety  as  "the  deed  which  sees  into  and 
through  itself,"  the  Froebelian  method  is  the  most 
effective  yet  discovered  for  preventing  that  accumu- 
lation of  blind,  tempestuous,  and  colliding  impulses 
which  so  constantly  wrecks  life  and  disintegrates 
personality. 

Defining  the  aim  of  the  kindergarten  as  the  germinal 
development  of  those  mental  and  moral  habits  and 
that  emotional  undertone  which  are  implied  in  the 
conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes,  and  defining  its 
method  as  the  incitement  of  typical  deeds  through 
which  children  shall  be  helped  to  see  into  and  through 
themselves,  let  us  next  remind  ourselves  that  the  pre- 
supposition of  our  method  is  life  conceived,  on  the  one 
hand,  as  immediate  presentation,  and  on  the  other, 
as  immediate  response  to  this  presentation.  In  other 
words,  the  actual  experience  of  children  is  to  supply 
our  point  of  departure  for  the  development  of  the 
Gliedganzes  by  the  incitement  of  typical  deeds  and  the 
stimulation  of  that  gentle  and  indirect  introspection 
and  retrospection  through  which  the  deed  gets  eyes  to 
see  into  and  through  itself. 

For  many  years  there  was  divergence  of  opinion 
among  the  representatives  of  the  kindergarten  as  to 
whether  it  were  either  possible  or  desirable  to  find  a 
basis  of  common  experience  and  whether  it  were  either 
possible  or  desirable  to  incite  typical  deeds.  Happily 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  143 

this  divergence  of  opinion  is  now  so  far  overcome  as  to 
be  practically  negligible  and  this  report  assumes  that 
the  common  experience  and  the  typical  deed  need  no 
further  defense. 

Accepting  the  idea  that  the  program  shall  find  its 
point  of  departure  in  the  common  experiences  of  chil- 
dren, we  next  set  ourselves  the  task  of  inventorying 
the  elements  of  this  experience.  So  soon  as  we  con- 
sciously begin  this  task  we  become  aware  that  the  first 
great  common  experience  of  the  children  is  life  in  the 
kindergarten  itself.  Let  us  try  to  realize  what  this 
experience  means  by  entering  into  the  mind  of  a  new 
pupil  admitted  to  an  already  organized  kindergarten. 
Up  to  this  time  the  little  boy,  now  four  years  old,  has 
spent  his  life  with  the  members  of  his  own  family. 
Most  of  them  are  his  elders  and  make  allowances  for 
him.  In  the  kindergarten  the  very  first  things  he  learns 
are  what  he  must  do  and  what  he  must  not  do  hi  order 
to  become  an  acceptable  member  of  the  little  commun- 
ity to  which  he  now  belongs.  He  must  not  knock  over 
his  neighbor's  blocks  or  scatter  his  sticks  or  snatch  the 
mat  he  is  weaving.  He  must  open  his  box  at  the  right 
moment  in  order  not  to  keep  the  children  who  are 
prompt  from  beginning  their  building.  He  must  have 
his  weaving  or  folding  in  his  portfolio  at  the  end  of  an 
exercise  in  order  not  to  detain  his  comrades  who  are 
eager  to  march  to  the  circle.  He  must  not  jerk,  push, 
slap,  or  pinch  his  companions.  Again,  these  little  com- 
panions are  clean  and  will  not  like  him  unless  he  is 
clean.  He  notices  that  they  listen  to  what  the  kinder- 
gartner  says  and  obey  her  words.  They  water  the 
plants,  put  away  the  gifts,  set  the  chairs  in  order. 


144  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

Insensibly  he  conforms  to  the  general  spirit,  and 
through  the  contagion  of  a  prompt,  industrious,  or- 
derly, cheerful,  obedient,  and  kindly  community  he 
begins  to  form  the  habits  necessary  to  all  corporate 
life.  After  a  while  the  kindergartner  begins  indirectly 
to  present  these  habits  as  ideals.  There  are  stories  of 
children  who  were  active,  useful,  polite,  and  kind. 
There  are  fairy  stories  whose  heroes  won  fan*  princesses 
and  became  great  kings  through  the  exercise  of  these 
elementary  virtues.  There  are  games  wherein  the  chil- 
dren represent  typical  forms  of  the  service  of  men  and 
animals,  of  plants,  and  even  of  the  elements.  The  pic- 
ture of  a  life  in  which  each  serves  all  and  is  served  by  all 
begins  to  hover  in  dimmest  outline  before  his  imagina- 
tion and  reacts  to  make  the  little  boy  more  ready  to  do 
his  own  small  part.  In  short,  fundamental  habits  are 
being  formed,  fundamental  sympathies  cherished,  and 
fundamental  ideals  defined,  first,  through  actual  life 
in  an  embryonic  community,  and  second,  by  a  repre- 
sentation in  play  and  story  of  the  services  of  the  larger 
community  and  the  natural  world. 

We  have  tried  to  suggest  briefly  the  reaction  of  an 
organized  kindergarten  upon  an  individual  child.  Let 
us  now  attempt  to  follow  the  self-organizing  and  self- 
defining  activity  of  the  kindergarten  itself.  We  will 
assume  that  it  is  the  first  week  of  the  school  year  and 
that  a  new  kindergarten  is  being  opened.  The  kinder- 
gartner who  understands  and  appreciates  the  influence 
of  environment  will  have  spared  no  pains  to  make  the 
first  impression  of  the  kindergarten  room  both  pleasant 
and  suggestive.  It  is,  therefore,  bright  with  sunshine 
and  flowers.  A  single  picture  —  the  Madonna  and 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  145 

Child  —  hangs  on  the  wall.  Suspended  from  the  ceil- 
ing are  several  groups  of  balls  of  different  colors,  and 
boxes  containing  similar  balls  stand  on  an  accessible 
shelf.  A  sand  table  invites  to  immediate  delights,  and 
perhaps  upon  the  tables  at  which  the  children  are  to 
sit  are  temptingly  displayed  boxes  of  bright-colored 
beads,  and  large  needles  conveniently  threaded. 

To  this  new  environment  in  early  September  come 
forty  or  fifty  little  children  four  and  five  years  old,  no 
one  of  whom  has  ever  attended  a  kindergarten.  For 
the  nonce  let  us  eliminate  the  kindergartner;  suppose 
the  children  alone  and  ask  ourselves  what  they  will  do. 
We  may  be  sure  that  they  will  make  more  or  less  shy 
advances  towards  acquaintanceship,  will  soon  learn 
each  others'  names,  will  measure  themselves  against 
each  other  in  running  games,  and  after  a  while  will 
unite  in  playing  some  simple  traditional  ring  game. 
They  will  spy  the  sand  table  and  will  soon  be  sifting 
sand  through  their  open  fingers,  burying  their  hands 
in  the  sand,  poking  holes,  hollowing  wells,  and  piling 
hills.  The  bright-colored  beads  and  threaded  needles 
will  tempt  them  to  string  necklaces.  The  balls  will 
suggest  rolling,  tossing,  whirling,  and  hiding  games. 
The  hiding  of  balls  will  be  followed  by  the  hiding  of 
children.  Finally,  the  flowers  will  assuredly  be  noticed, 
and  the  picture  of  Mother  and  Child  will  attract 
sympathetic  attention. 

Let  us  now  restore  the  eliminated  kindergartner  and 
ask  ourselves  what  she  should  do.  The  answer  is  a 
very  simple  one.  She  should  watch  the  children  and 
from  then*  spontaneous  deeds  open  paths  of  approach 
towards  the  several  great  human  values.  She  may  lead 


146  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

from  the  mere  covering  of  hands  in  the  sand  to  the 
making  of  huts.  She  may  bring  twigs  which  the  chil- 
dren will  be  delighted  to  plant  around  these  huts  in 
holes  of  their  own  poking.  She  may  suggest  that  each 
child  draw  a  boundary  line  around  his  own  cave.  She 
may  lead  the  children  to  make  paths  from  cave  to  cave 
and  thus  create  a  rude  village.  She  may  turn  away 
from  constructive  activity  to  rhythmic  arrangement, 
and  suggest  that  the  holes  poked  in  the  sand  be  poked 
at  equal  distances.  After  a  while  she  may  substitute 
shells  for  holes  and  incite  the  children  to  original 
creation  of  rhythmic  and  symmetric  designs. 

Like  the  sand  table  the  bead-stringing  offers  a  point 
of  departure  for  the  development  of  creative  activity 
and  for  approach  to  constructive  values,  art  values, 
and  mathematical  values.  The  children  may  string 
necklaces,  bracelets,  wreaths,  and  decorations  for  the 
kindergarten  room.  It  is  fair  to  assume  that  left  to 
themselves  they  will  string  in  somewhat  disorderly 
fashion.  The  kindergartner  intervenes  with  the  sug- 
gestion that  they  alternate  one  white  and  one  red  bead, 
thereby  introducing  a  practical  exercise  in  number  and 
color.  Later  the  most  varied  and  beautiful  arrange- 
ments of  beads  may  be  made  by  more  complicated 
alternations  of  number  and  color  and  by  the  addition 
of  alternative  forms  and  sizes.1 

Turning  our  attention  from  sand  and  beads  to  balls, 
we  are  almost  bewildered  by  the  number  and  variety 
of  educational  exercises  for  which  they  supply  the  point 
of  departure.  Rolling  balls  is  a  fine  arm  exercise. 

1  It  is  to  be  understood  that  these  arrangements  arc  to  be  dis- 
covered by  the  children. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  147 

Rolling  first  to  some  particular  child  and  later  to  hit 
a  box  or  cube  is  an  excellent  eye  exercise.  Attention 
to  the  path  taken  by  a  ball  impelled  with  force  begins 
the  acquaintanceship  with  the  straight  line.  Atten- 
tion to  the  several  movements  described  by  whirling 
balls  begins  the  acquaintanceship  with  circular,  spiral, 
and  vortical  lines.  The  sinking  and  rising  balls  intro- 
duce the  children  to  the  vertical  line.  The  fruit  and 
bird  games  call  attention  to  color  and  number.  The 
spinning  games  (especially  when  the  spinning  sphere 
is  contrasted  with  the  spinning  cube)  suggest  the  un- 
changeableness  of  the  sphere  under  all  varieties  of 
position  and  all  accelerations  of  movement.  The 
search  for  objects  like  the  sphere  begins  the  classi- 
fication of  objects  under  geometric  archetypes.  The 
method  followed  hi  developing  all  these  exercises  is  to 
give  the  children  opportunity  for  free  experiment;  to 
observe  what  they  do  and  towards  what  human  val- 
ues this  deed  points;  to  suggest  new  exercises  develop- 
ing the  implications  of  their  free  deed,  and  to  incite  the 
children  not  only  to  do  something,  but  to  notice  what 
they  have  done. 

We  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  first  gift  and 
occupation  exercises  because  the  application  of  the 
genetic  method  to  gifts  and  occupations  seems  to  be 
far  less  generally  understood  than  its  application  to 
games.  It  has  long  been  recognized  that  the  first  thing 
which  must  be  done  in  a  new  kindergarten  is  to  over- 
come the  feelings  of  shyness  and  strangeness,  and  help 
the  children  to  feel  at  home  in  then*  unaccustomed 
environment.  These  little  strangers  must  get  ac- 
quainted with  the  kindergartner,  her  assistants,  and 


148  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

each  other.  They  must  also  get  acquainted  with  the 
kindergarten  room.  This  primary  demand  of  ac- 
quaintanceship determines  the  games  played  during 
the  first  few  weeks,  and  all  kindergartners  know  the 
goodly  series  of  naming  games,  greeting  games,  wander- 
ing games,  hiding  games,  recognition  games,  and  visit- 
ing games  which  have  been  evolved  to  meet  it.  It  is 
worthy  of  mention  that  these  games  call  only  for  the 
simplest  physical  activities  and  that  they  involve  none 
of  the  quick  transitions  of  movement  characteristic 
of  games  played  towards  the  end  of  the  year.1 

It  has  been  already  said  that  the  first  great  common 
experience  of  kindergarten  children  is  life  in  the  kin- 
dergarten itself.  The  program  may  perhaps  be  most 
briefly  defined  as  an  attempt  to  reinforce,  influence, 
and  interpret  this  self-evolving  life.  Let  us,  therefore, 
ask  ourselves  what  lines  of  development  have  been 
started  by  the  experiences  already  described. 

The  children  are  now  acquainted  with  the  kinder- 
gartner  and  with  each  other.  They  have  enjoyed  many 
things  in  common.  They  have  dug  wells,  piled  hills, 
and  hollowed  caves  in  the  sand.  Long  chains  of  beads 
of  their  own  stringing,  and  paper  chains  which  they 
have  interlinked  hang  in  gay  festoons  before  their  eyes. 
The  balls  have  rolled  and  wandered  from  child  to  child. 
Other  rolling  games  have  developed  in  which  the  ball 
has  been  aimed  at  some  chosen  object  and  the  stead- 

1  The  first  demand  of  the  genetic  method  in  its  application  to 
panics  is  emphasis  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  upon  pure  movement 
games,  such  as  walking,  running,  skipping,  hopping,  swinging  of 
arms  and  legs,  sinking  and  rising.  Its  second  demand  is  advance  to 
simple  imitative  games  involving  these  movements,  for  example, 
hopping  birds,  running  horses,  swinging  pendulums. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  149 

fast  cube  has  proved  itself  a  satisfactory  target.  The 
flowers  have  been  given  fresh  water  every  day,  and  as 
they  faded,  new  and  different  flowers  have  taken  their 
places.  The  kindergartner  has  suggested  how  pleasant 
it  would  be  to  go  some  day  all  together  to  a  park  or 
field  where  many  beautiful  flowers  might  be  seen  and 
gathered.  The  single  wandering  game  has  developed 
into  the  flying  bird;  the  collective  wandering  game  into 
the  streamlet;  and  the  words  of  both  have  rehearsed 
the  wonders  of  the  great  out-of-doors.  A  story  has  been 
told  of  little  Thumbelina  who  wandered  far  and  wide 
and  the  marvels  of  her  experience.  Finally,  the  game 
of  "Little  Travelers"  has  been  played  and  imagination 
stimulated  hi  each  little  child  who  tells  of  the  land  from 
which  he  came.  Are  not  the  children  ready  for  a  new 
experience,  and  shall  not  our  next  attempt  to  abet  the 
self -unfolding  life  of  our  little  community  be  made  by 
taking  them  on  an  excursion? 

Only  those  kindergartners  who  have  for  years  made 
excursions  with  their  children  can  realize  how  greatly 
they  enrich  the  self-unfolding  life  of  the  little  commun- 
ity and  how  many  points  of  departure  they  yield  for 
approach  towards  the  several  great  educational  values. 
Some  slight  sense  of  their  importance  will,  however, 
be  suggested  by  considering  even  the  four  excursions 
now  often  made  during  the  weeks  intervening  between 
the  opening  of  the  kindergarten  in  September  and 
the  first  climax  of  the  program  in  the  Thanksgiving 
festival.  The  first  excursion  is  made  during  the  fourth 
week  after  the  opening  of  the  kindergarten  and  is  usu- 
ally to  some  park  or  field.  On  this  excursion  the  chil- 
dren see  horses,  dogs,  squirrels,  pigeons  and  pigeon 


150  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

houses,  different  kinds  of  birds  and  butterflies.  Often 
they  find  snails  and  cocoons.  Generally  they  see  ant- 
hills. Sometimes  they  come  across  different  strange 
insects.  They  dig  tiny  pebbles  out  of  the  ground. 
They  gather  many  kinds  of  wild  flowers.  They  blow 
the  feathery  tufts  of  the  dandelion  and  snap  the  cap- 
sules of  the  jewel  weed.  Burdocks  cling  to  their 
clothes,  and  sometimes  they  are  pricked  by  thorns  and 
stung  by  nettles.  In  a  second  excursion  several  weeks 
later,  they  see  birds  flying  southward,  trees  shaking 
their  leaves,  and  squirrels  gathering  nuts;  they  find 
nests  which  have  fallen  to  the  ground,  gather  fall 
leaves  of  different  colors,  pick  up  nuts,  and  discover 
many  kinds  of  seeds.  Their  third  excursion  is  to  a 
bakery,  and  the  fourth,  and  last  before  Thanksgiving, 
is  to  a  market  where  they  see  sheaves  of  wheat,  stalks 
of  corn,  and  a  wonderful  variety  of  fruits  and  vegeta- 
bles. 

We  have  been  trying  to  analyze  the  common  ex- 
perience of  children  during  the  first  few  weeks  of  life 
in  the  kindergarten.  Not  yet,  however,  is  our  analysis 
complete.  For  every  day  all  these  children  have  been 
coming  from  and  returning  to  homes.  Their  total  ex- 
perience is  an  alternation  of  life  between  two  communi- 
ties and  a  gradually  self-establishing  connection  be- 
tween them.  Is  it  not  inevitable  that  as  the  children 
domesticate  themselves  in  their  new  environment  and 
begin  to  feel  in  sympathy  with  the  kindergartner  and 
with  each  other  that  they  should  wish  to  tell  about 
the  homes  in  which  hitherto  their  lives  have  been  lived. 
There  is  a  baby  brother  in  one  home,  a  baby  sister  in 
another,  and  in  a  third  a  grandmother  who  tells  won- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  151 

derful  stories.  Willy's  mother  took  him  on  Saturday 
to  a  circus.  Gretchen  has  had  a  birthday  party  and  a 
cake  with  candles.  Peter's  father  goes  with  the  whole 
family  to  the  park  every  Sunday.  Connections  with 
the  home  are  establishing  themselves  in  other  ways. 
Dora's  mother  brings  her  to  the  kindergarten  every 
day  and  often  lingers  through  the  opening  exercises. 
Harry's  sister  comes  with  him,  and  tiny  Margaret  has 
as  daily  escort  her  proud  young  father.  Joe's  brother 
brings  a  message  that  he  is  ill  and  the  kindergartner 
hastens  to  cheer  him  with  a  visit.  It  is  needless  to  go 
into  more  detail.  The  chain  which  binds  the  kinder- 
garten to  the  home  is  forging  itself. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  International  Kindergarten 
Union,  hi  St.  Louis,  Mrs.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer,  so 
well  known  through  her  wise  philanthropic  work,  said 
that  of  all  the  agencies  now  working  towards  the  solu- 
tion of  that  most  imperative  problem,  —  the  assimila- 
tion of  our  immigrant  population,  —  the  one  which  in 
her  judgment  was  working  in  the  sanest  way  was 
the  kindergarten.  Other  agencies,  she  explained,  were 
dismissing  the  adult  immigrant  from  consideration; 
solacing  themselves  with  the  assurance  that  these 
foreign-born  men  and  women  would  soon  be  dead,  and 
concentrating  efforts  upon  the  single  task  of  making 
American  citizens  of  their  children.  The  result  was  a 
severance  of  the  family  tie,  and  development  in  chil- 
dren of  a  contemptuous  attitude  towards  fathers  and 
mothers. 

The  least  reflection  should  assure  any  intelligent  per- 
son that  attack  upon  primal  relationships  is  attack 
upon  the  roots  of  virtue.  It  is  by  filial  faith,  love,  and 


152  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

obedience;  by  fraternal  kindness;  by  consideration  and 
tenderness  for  grandparents,  and  by  the  stimulation 
of  nurturing  impulses  through  small  services  to  help- 
less infancy  that  each  new  generation  nourishes  in  its 
heart  those  primal  affections  from  which  are  precipi- 
tated our  moral  ideals.  Teaching  a  child  to  scorn  his 
parents  and  to  despise  his  home  is  not  educating  him 
for  citizenship,  but  for  contempt  of  law  and  order.  We 
must  educate  for  a  national,  nay,  rather  for  a  cosmo- 
politan, manhood,  but  the  child  five  years  old  cannot 
be  a  citizen  of  the  world. 

"  Man  is  made  of  social  earth, 
Child  and  brother  from  his  birth. 
Near  to  his  heart  the  household  band, 
Father,  mother,  sister  stand: 

Virtue  to  love,  to  hate  them  vice." 

One  incidental  feature  of  the  interaction  between  the 
two  communities  —  the  occasional  visit  of  a  baby 
brother  or  sister  to  the  kindergarten  —  has  proved  itself 
singularly  prolific  of  educational  results.  Its  influence 
may,  perhaps,  be  most  briefly  described  as  a  point  of 
departure  for  the  development  of  the  nurturing  spirit. 
Nearly  all  children  love  babies  and  are  pleased  to  hold 
them,  if  only  for  a  minute,  to  look  at  their  tiny  fists 
and  pink  toes,  to  see  them  wave  bye-bye,  and  to  win 
from  them  a  coo  or  a  smile.  After  such  a  visit  they 
are  ready  for  doll  plays,  eager  to  wash,  dress,  and  feed 
baby,  trundle  it  gently  in  its  carriage,  warm  its  cold 
feet,  put  it  to  sleep,  speak  and  move  gently  while  it  is 
sleeping,  play  with  it  when  it  wakes.  Having  them- 
selves played  these  acts  of  nurture,  they  look  with 
awakened  interest  at  the  pictures  in  the  Mother  Play. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  153 

On  one  page  they  see  baby  striking  out  vigorously 
with  his  little  legs  and  mother  playing  some  game  like 
"Shoe  the  Horse."  On  another,  they  see  mother  giv- 
ing baby  his  supper.  In  a  third  picture,  she  has  taken 
him  out  of  doors  and  is  teaching  him  to  beckon  the 
pigeons.  In  a  fourth,  she  is  teaching  him  to  play  "  Pat- 
a-cake";  in  a  fifth,  to  gather  flowers;  in  a  sixth,  she 
is  showing  him  the  moon.  Enough  —  the  concrete  pic- 
ture of  all  mother  does  for  the  baby  —  all  she  once 
did  for  him  begins  to  shape  itself  in  the  child's  imagi- 
nation, and  interpreted  by  the  doll  plays  stirs  his  heart 
with  faith  and  love.  He  has  begun  to  know  himself  as 
a  nurtured  being.  He  has  begun  to  develop  in  himself 
nurturing  impulse.  "Answer  me,"  says  Froebel,  ad- 
dressing the  mother,  "answer  me  but  one  question. 
What  is  the  supreme  gift  you  would  bestow  on  the  chil- 
dren who  are  the  life  of  your  life,  the  soul  of  your  soul? 
Would  you  not  above  all  other  things  render  them  cap- 
able of  giving  nurture?  Would  you  not  endow  them 
with  the  courage  and  constancy  which  the  ability  to  give 
nurture  implies?  Mother,  father,  has  not  our  common 
effort  been  directed  towards  just  this  end?  Have  we  not 
been  trying  to  break  a  path  towards  this  blessed  life?  " 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  presupposition  of  the 
genetic  method  was  life  conceived  as  immediate  pre- 
sentation and  reaction  and  its  goal  life  transfigured  and 
illuminated.  We  have  been  trying  to  show  one  small 
cycle  of  this  process,  the  sweep  from  simple  pleasure 
in  seeing  and  holding  baby  to  a  dim  awareness  of  self 
as  a  nurtured  being  and  a  faint  stirring  within  the 
heart  of  nurturing  impulse.  The  total  sweep  of  the 
kindergarten  program  should  be  a  vortical  ascent 


154  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

towards  clearer  consciousness  of  the  self  as  nurtured, 
more  vigorous  stirrings  within  the  self  of  nurturing 
impulses,  and  higher  attainment  by  the  self  of  the 
courage,  constancy,  patience,  watchfulness,  and  fidel- 
ity necessary  to  nurturing  activity.  Doll  plays  must 
therefore  be  followed  by  actual  care  for  animals  and 
plants,  and  the  kindergarten  cannot  realize  its  own 
ideal  until  these  phases  of  its  life  are  more  generally 
embodied.  There  are  many  indications  which  suggest 
that  their  importance  is  being  increasingly  recognized. 
In  practically  all  kindergartens  there  are  plants  which 
the  children  care  for,  in  a  very  large  number  there  are 
gold  fish,  in  a  smaller  number  aquariums  with  several 
kinds  of  water  animals,  and  in  a  few  kindergartens  the 
experiment  has  been  made  of  providing  a  very  large 
cage  which  is  occupied  successively  by  visiting  ani- 
mals—  that  is,  pigeons,  squirrels,  guinea  pigs,  fam- 
ilies of  rabbits,  mother  hens  with  their  broods  of  little 
chickens.  No  one  who  has  attentively  considered  the 
reaction  of  this  direct  and  sympathetic  contact  with 
animal  life  both  upon  intellect  and  character  will  be 
willing  to  lose  its  influence. 

In  what  has  thus  far  been  written  an  effort  has  been 
made  to  describe  the  common  experiences  which  give 
direction  to  the  self -evolving  life  of  a  new  kindergarten 
community  during  the  first  few  weeks  of  its  existence. 
Two  features  of  that  life  remain  to  be  considered;  the 
daily  luncheon  of  bread  and  milk  and  the  little  prayer 
and  hymn  with  which  each  morning  the  kindergarten 
opens.1 

1  It  is  not  claimed  that  these  features  are  universal.  It  is  believed 
they  should  be. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  155 

Considered  as  an  educational  influence  the  values 
of  the  luncheon  are  that  it  affords  occasion  for  develop- 
ing cleanliness,  neatness,  and  courtesy,  that  it  supplies 
a  point  of  departure  for  representation  and  assimila- 
tion of  the  series  of  activities  through  which  bread  and 
milk  are  provided,  and  that  through  the  simple  grace 
by  which  it  is  preceded  it  reinforces  the  influence  of  the 
opening  prayer  and  hymn.  The  common  purpose  of 
grace,  hymn,  and  prayer  is  the  cultivation  of  a  devout 
spirit. 

One  of  the  more  valuable  contributions  of  contem- 
porary pyschology  to  education  is  its  insistence  upon 
the  reaction  of  motor-expression  upon  feeling  and 
thought.  Froebel  calls  attention  to  this  reaction  in  the 
Mother  Play  and  bases  upon  it  his  argument  for  the 
development  of  the  religious  spirit  through  the  culti- 
vation of  reverent  attitudes  and  gestures.  Faithful, 
however,  to  his  own  genetic  method,  he  likewise  insists 
that  the  devout  attitude  shall  not  be  formally  im- 
posed, but  evoked  as  the  natural  expression  of  a  dawn- 
ing feeling.  The  ways  and  means  of  meeting  this 
double  requirement  were  considered  in  detail  in  the 
third  section  of  this  report.  It  suffices,  therefore,  in  the 
present  connection  to  repeat  that  only  a  devout  kin- 
dergartner  can  really  quicken  the  reverential  spirit  and 
that  nothing  could  be  more  antithetic  to  the  Froebelian 
ideal  than  a  parrot-like  repetition  of  devout  words  and 
a  monkey-like  simulation  of  the  prayerful  attitude. 

The  connection  between  mental  states  and  bodily 
attitudes  is  not  an  arbitrary  one.  Between  the  Orien- 
tal who  prostrates  himself  before  a  heavenly  and  earthly 
potentate  and  the  Puritan  who,  erect  and  open-eyed, 


156  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

faces  God  and  his  fellow  man,  there  is  a  contrast  which 
suggests  the  greatest  line  of  scission  in  human  history. 
Between  the  Puritan  himself  and  his  descendant,  who 
with  wandering  mind  sits  in  indolent  relaxation  in  his 
cushioned  pew,  there  is  another  contrast  it  were  well 
to  consider.  It  may,  nay,  rather,  it  must  be  granted 
that  reverent  attitudes  should  be  the  outer  and  visible 
sign  of  reverent  minds,  but  it  must  also  be  insisted 
that  reverent  minds  are  created  by  reverent  deeds  and 
that  unless  in  childhood  the  dawning  feeling  of  rever- 
ence is  strengthened  and  confirmed  by  habitual  expres- 
sion it  cannot  maintain  itself  against  the  besieging 
temptations  which  tend  to  make  life  superficial,  arro- 
gant, and  empty. 

The  primary  purpose  of  the  foregoing  pages  has 
been  to  describe  the  self-evolving  life  of  a  new  kinder- 
garten community.  During  their  first  weeks  in  the 
kindergarten  the  children  have  had  the  several  great 
experiences  of  estrangement  from  a  familiar  life;  mem- 
bership in  a  new  community;  and  a  series  of  self -estab- 
lishing connections  between  the  two.  They  have  re- 
peated the  typical  aspects  of  this  threefold  experience 
in  play  and  by  this  reproduction  have  begun  its-assimi- 
lation. The  reader  who  has  grasped  this  relation  be- 
tween life  and  play  will  already  have  divined  the  fact 
that  throughout  the  kindergarten  year  the  children  will 
be  expanding  experience  and  projecting  this  expanded 
experience  in  their  games.  Running  like  squirrels,  gal- 
loping and  trotting  like  horses,  flying  like  birds,  swim- 
ming like  fishes,  flowing  like  streams,  tending  babies 
like  mother,  sowing  and  reaping  like  the  farmer,  ham- 
mering like  the  blacksmith,  marching  like  the  soldier,  in 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  157 

short,  becoming  themselves  different  persons,  animals, 
and  objects,  children  create  within  themselves  a  micro- 
scopic copy  of  life,  and  therefore  begin  to  know  life. 
Do  we  ever  know  anything  save  as  we  make  it  a  part  of 
ourselves,  and  how  shall  the  little  child  make  external 
objects,  persons,  and  events  parts  of  himself  unless,  by 
doing  as  they  do,  he  makes  himself  their  copy.  The 
essential  thing  is  that  his  copy  or  portrait  of  life  shall 
not  caricature  life,  but  shall  sympathetically  reproduce 
its  defining  features  and  its  ideal  expression.  George 
Eliot  has  remarked  that  even  Milton,  looking  for  his 
portrait  in  a  spoon,  must  submit  to  have  the  facial 
angle  of  a  bumpkin.  Like  portraits  of  individuals, 
portraits  of  life  may  diminish  and  distort  the  original 
portrayed. 

The  play  world  which  the  child  creates  constitutes 
the  spiritual  environment,  in  which  he  lives  and  moves 
and  has  his  being.  Having  created  it,  he  comprehends 
it,  and  it  becomes  the  key  through  which  he  interprets 
the  larger  world  in  which  he  finds  himself.  The  world 
mind  knows  is  always  primarily  a  world  it  has  made. 
The  creator  is  not  the  mere  predecessor  of  the  knower. 
He  is  the  knower's  ancestor. 

Hitherto,  exercising  his  own  unaided  might,  the 
child  has  created  a  play  world  which  caricatures  the 
greater  world  into  which  he  is  born.  Hence  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  latter  is  a  false  and  distorted  one. 
The  primary  aim  of  the  kindergarten  is  to  help  him 
create  a  miniature  world  which  shall  be  a  faithful  por- 
trait of  the  greater  world  in  its  ideal  aspects.1 

1  For  a  definition  of  what  is  meant  by  the  ideal,  see  Educational 
Issues  in  the  Kindergarten,  pp.  63,  64. 


158  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

The  question  may  arise,  How  can  games  having  a 
fixed -form  be  considered  creations  of  children?  The 
answer  to  this  question  is  that  the  game  assumes 
fixed  form  as  the  result  of  a  process  of  social  creation. 
In  the  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten,  Froebel  has  illus- 
trated in  great  detail  the  application  of  the  genetic- 
developing  method  to  the  evolution  of  games,  and  one 
of  the  most  cheering  evidences  of  growth  in  the  kinder- 
garten is  the  increasing  ability  of  kindergartners  to 
follow  his  procedure.  It  should  be  added  that  excur- 
sions have  proved  themselves  of  great  help  in  the  orig- 
inal development  of  games.  The  children  who  have  act- 
ually seen  carpenters  and  blacksmiths  at  work,  who 
have  gone  to  a  toy-shop,  who  have  visited  a  barn- 
yard, who  have  seen  men  making,  planting,  hoeing,  and 
raking  gardens,  are  full  of  ideas  with  regard  to  the  ways 
in  which  these  activities  may  be  represented  in  play.1 

The  reproduction  of  experience  in  the  circle  game 
is  reinforced  by  its  reproduction  in  and  interpretation 
through  the  gifts  and  occupations.  The  increasing  ten- 
dency in  all  good  kindergartens  is  to  make  every  gift 
and  occupation  exercise  creative,  and  the  spontaneous 
reproduction  of  common  and  typical  experiences  by 
the  children  is  another  witness  to  the  fact  that  the 
kindergarten  is  really  coming  to  understand  itself. 

In  describing  the  plays  of  the  kindergarten  as  repro- 
ductions of  experience  we  have  expressed  one  of  those 
half-truths  which  become  the  worst  kind  of  falsehoods 
when  they  are  taken  for  the  whole  truth.  We  must, 
therefore,  urgently  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  play 

1  These  illustrations  do  not  imply  that  an  actual  experience  must 
precede  every  single  game.  See  Symbolic  Education,  note  to  p.  171. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  159 

is  not  merely  a  copy  of  life,  but  during  the  period  of 
childhood  is  life  itself  at  its  highest  potency.  Hence 
play  is  a  large  contributor  to  experience,  and  in  its 
original  contributions  we  find  our  points  of  departure 
for  many  great  human  values.  In  our  judgment  it  is 
because  the  contribution  of  play  to  experience  is  not 
appreciated  that  gift  exercises  are  often  limited  to 
copy  of  life  and  that  in  occupation  exercises  undue 
stress  is  placed  upon  applied  design. 

To  the  conception  of  the  kindergarten  as  a  place 
where  children  reproduce  experience,  accompanied  by 
blindness  to  the  fact  that  it  is  a  place  where  children 
are  having  experience,  we  owe  many  of  the  worst 
perversions  of  kindergarten  practice.  Children  are 
having  experience  when  they  play  circle  games,  when 
they  build,  model,  sew,  draw,  or  paint;  when  they  look 
at  a  picture;  when  they  listen  to  a  story.  Any  one  of 
these  or  of  many  other  experiences  may  become  the 
point  of  departure  for  a  process  of  development. 

Casting  a  backward  glance  upon  the  thoughts  thus 
far  considered,  we  may  repeat  once  more  that  the  pre- 
supposition of  the  genetic  method  is  life  conceived 
as  immediate  presentation  and  response,  and  that  its 
goal  is  life  clarified,  interpreted,  and  renewing  itself  on 
a  higher  plane.  This  sublimation  of  life  is  begun  in  and 
through  play,  which  is  itself  an  initial  expression  of  that 
loftier  activity  and  more  transparent  consciousness  in 
which  it  should  issue. 

Looking  at  his  immediate  life  in  a  mirror  of  play 
which  he  has  created,  the  child  exercises  that  delicate, 
indirect,  and  semi-conscious  introspective  activity 
upon  which  Froebel  insists  in  his  description  of  the 


160  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

genetic  method.  The  word  introspection  carries  to 
many  minds  the  exclusive  meaning  of  a  conscious 
analysis  of  mental  states.  No  one  who  limits  intro- 
spection to  conscious  self-scrutiny  can  understand 
Froebel  or  the  genetic  method.  Froebel  is  simply 
thinking  the  double  thought  that  through  imitation 
the  child  fans  to  clearer  flame  the  tiny  spark  of  con- 
sciousness, and  that  this  flame  of  consciousness  by  a 
kind  of  return  dialectic  illuminates  the  objects  of  the 
external  world. 

The  introspective  activity  aroused  by  representa- 
tion in  play  of  different  objects,  persons,  events,  and 
processes  is  heightened  by  looking  at  pictures  having  a 
similar  content.  It  is  primarily  because  the  pictures  in 
the  Mother  Play  book  correspond  most  nearly  to  the 
series  of  typical  representations  made  by  children  in 
play  that  Froebelian  kindergartners  consider  their  use 
so  important.  Their  function  is  to  give  additional 
concreteness  to  the  portrait  of  life  sketched  in  the 
kindergarten  games  and  to  contribute  to  its  ideal 
interpretation.  For  example,  children  who  have 
played  the  "Family  Game"  are  stirred  to  deeper  intui- 
tions of  its  meaning  by  the  picture  of  a  home  interior 
showing  father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  and  baby,  and 
surrounded  by  marginal  pictures  of  family  life  in 
nature.  Again,  in  the  illustrations  of  the  Mother  Play 
book  the  children  see  not  only  the  objects,  persons,  and 
acts  they  have  represented,  but  a  picture  of  them- 
selves representing  them,  or,  in  other  words,  the  inner 
relationship  of  their  play  to  life  is  suggested  to  them  and 
thereby  a  new  degree  of  introspective  activity  is  quick- 
ened. Their  play  mirrored  actual  experience;  the  pic- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  161 

tures  mirror  not  only  experience,  but  the  mirroring  of 
experience.  That  this  naive  process  of  double  reflection 
is  in  accord  with  the  method  by  which  genius  has  always 
attempted  to  stimulate  the  prescient  imagination,  no 
student  of  literature  will  need  to  be  reminded. 

It  should  be  added  that  while  we  find  in  the  illus- 
trations of  the  Mother  Play  our  most  valuable  pictorial 
aids  in  the  interpretation  of  experience,  we  do  not 
exclude  other  pictures.  Large  collections  of  pictures 
have  been  made  in  different  cities  which  combine 
artistic  merit  with  the  illustration  of  those  ranges  of 
experience  accessible  to  childish  imagination.  Their  in- 
fluence upon  the  development  of  an  appreciative  feel- 
ing for  art  has  been  as  marked  as  their  power  to  quicken 
a  sympathetic  intuition  of  primal  relationships  and 
elementary  ideals. 

The  interpretation  of  experience  begun  in  play  and 
continued  by  picture  is  clarified  through  the  use  of 
natural  analogues.  In  the  first  weeks  of  their  life  in 
the  kindergarten  the  children,  who  are  beginning  to  feel 
themselves  members  of  a  little  community,  are  helped 
to  precipitate  their  feeling  into  an  idea  by  looking  at 
such  floral  communities  as  sunflowers  and  daisies  and 
hearing  a  little  about  their  cooperative  life.  When 
they  have  played  putting  baby  to  sleep  and  taking  him 
up  when  he  waked,  they  are  interested  in  the  sleeping 
four-o'clock  and  love  to  hear  how  different  flowers 
wake  and  greet  the  rising  sun.  As  the  premonition  of 
mother-love  dawns  in  their  minds,  they  delight  in 
playing  the  "Bird's  Nest";  as  they  begin  to  be  dimly 
aware  of  the  interrelations  of  industrial  life,  they  grow 
interested  in  insect  communities;  and  with  awareness 


162  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  the  vibration  of  their  own  lives  between  outgoing  and 
homecoming,  they  seem  never  to  tire  of  the  image  of 
themselves  in  the  forth-flying  and  home-returning 
pigeons.  The  fact  that  the  Mother  Play  pictures  include 
so  many  of  the  analogues  which  are  helpful  in  inter- 
preting experience  is  another  reason  why  no  other  pic- 
tures can  wholly  take  their  place. 

The  sublimation  of  experience  begun  in  play  and 
continued  through  pictures  and  natural  analogues  is 
completed  in  stories.  Of  these  stories  there  are  two 
distinct  kinds,  —  the  realistic  story  whose  details 
correspond  with  the  actual  experience  of  children,  and 
the  wonder  tale  which  incites  mind  to  reaches  beyond 
its  immediate  grasp.  For  children  of  kindergarten  age 
the  best  stories  of  realistic  type  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Mother  Play.  This  book  is  indeed  the  biography  of 
childhood,  and  therefore  the  best  interpretation  of  the 
everyday  life  of  all  children.  In  many  kindergartens 
one  period  of  twenty  minutes  each  week  is  given  to  a 
story  in  the  Mother  Play  and  to  looking  at  the  picture 
which  illustrates  it.  In  addition  to  this  mirror  of  actual 
life  other  stories  of  realistic  type  are  told,  and  occasion- 
ally simple  poems  are  learned  which  are  rehearsals  of 
actual  experience. 

Even  more  important  than  the  stories  which  are 
a  mirror  of  everyday  life  are  those  whose  distinctive 
merit  is  that,  instead  of  reproducing  the  details  of 
an  actual  experience,  they  illuminate  its  principle.  To 
illustrate:  During  the  first  ten  weeks  of  the  kindergar- 
ten year  many  kindergartners  tell  the  stories  of  "Thum- 
bclina,"  "The  Lion  and  the  Mouse,"  "Baby  Ray," 
"The  Three  Bears,"  "In  the  Mountain,"  "Susie's 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  163 

Dream,"  "Hans  and  the  Four  Giants,"  "The  Shoe- 
maker and  the  Elves,"  and  "Billy  Bobtail."  Three 
of  these  stories  ("Thumbelina,"  "The  Three  Bears," 
and  "In  the  Mountain")  are  tales  of  children  who 
wandered  far  from  home,  had  wonderful  adventures 
and  joyous  returns.  "The  Lion  and  the  Mouse  "con- 
cretely pictures  the  service  which  the  least  may  render 
to  the  greatest.  The  two  stories  of  "Baby  Ray"  re- 
late how  all  things  served  a  helpless  child.  "Susie's 
Dream"  is  a  story  of  mother  love.  "Hans  and  the 
Four  Giants"  and  "The  Shoemaker  and  the  Elves" 
project  the  ideal  of  social  service,  and  "Billy  Bobtail" 
is  a  story  of  the  domestication  and  service  of  ani- 
mals. It  should  be  superfluous  to  say  that  these 
particular  tales  are  mentioned  only  as  illustrations 
of  the  content  which  in  our  judgment  should  deter- 
mine the  selection  of  stories  during  the  early  part  of 
the  kindergarten  year.  The  general  thoughts  govern- 
ing the  selection  are  that  stories  of  this  type  should 
differ  from  experience  in  then*  detail,  correspond  with 
experience  in  their  principle,  and  by  extending  the 
range  of  this  common  principle  expand  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  child's  life.  In  short,  we  aspire  to  have  our 
stories  for  children  do  something  of  what  world  litera- 
ture does  for  us,  and  we  recognize  as  its  greatest  boon 
that  it  helps  us  to  scale  heights,  descend  into  depths, 
and  explore  breadths  of  life  which  without  it  we  had 
never  known,  and  which  nevertheless  are  connected 
with  our  own  infinitesimal  experience  by  the  inter- 
preting tie  of  a  common  principle. 

In  concluding  our  survey  of  the  kindergarten  as  an 
embryonic  community  which  is  evolving  and  assimi- 


164  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

lating  a  common  life,  it  is  only  needful  to  add  that  this 
life  is  framed  in  music  and  set  to  song.  It  is  through 
this  musical  setting  that  one  of  the  strongest  influences 
is  exerted  upon  the  "emotional  undertone"  of  the 
common  life.1 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  our  little  children 
first  entered  the  kindergarten  they  were  welcomed  by 
a  room  flooded  with  sunshine  and  gay  with  flowers; 
were  invited  to  activity  by  plastic  sand,  dangling  balls, 
and  brightly  colored  beads,  and  that  the  tender  ideal 
of  the  kindergarten  itself  was  suggested  through  the 
single  picture  of  the  Madonna  and  Child.  As  the  year 
progresses  the  kindergarten  room  becomes  a  kind  of 
history  of  the  life  of  the  happy  community.  As  each 
new  experience  is  assimilated  and  interpreted,  pictures 
embodying  its  typical  aspects  are  hung  on  the  walls, 
and  to  these  are  added  other  pictures  different  in  de- 
tail but  correspondent  in  idea.  On  the  blackboard  are 
drawn  chain  pictures  of  the  series  of  acts  involved  in 
different  industrial  processes.  The  cabinet  preserves 
treasures  collected  on  excursions  or  brought  by  differ- 
ent members  of  the  community.  In  another  cabinet 
are  treasured  creations  of  the  children  themselves.  The 
plants  so  carefully  tended  are  growing  and  blossoming. 
The  visiting  animals  are  a  never-failing  source  of  in- 

1  The  phrase  "emotional  undertone"  is  borrowed  from  Professor 
Royce,  who  defines  it  as  "the  permanent  common  quality  at  the 
basis  of  any  man's  normal  emotions  "  and  considers  it  as  the  accom- 
paniment of  a  permanent  physical  organization.  In  extending  the 
phrase  to  cover  the  common  life  of  the  kindergarten  we  eliminate 
its  physical  connotation  and  use  it  to  suggest  how  education  may 
help  to  make  life  habitually  brave  and  glad.  See  Royce,  Outlines  of 
Ptychology,  pp.  341.  34*. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  165 

terest  and  delightful  reminiscence.  A  walk  around  the 
kindergarten  room  is  a  retrospect  of  experience,  and 
no  one  who  has  observed  the  reaction  of  this  silent 
environmental  influence  can  doubt  its  value. 

The  theme  of  this  section  of  our  report  up  to  the 
present  point  has  been  the  self-evolving  circle  of  ex- 
perience in  a  kindergarten  community;  its  projection 
in  play;  its  interpretation  through  play,  picture,  natu- 
ral analogue,  and  story;  its  framework  of  music  and 
its  record  in  the  kindergarten  room.  Summarizing  the 
thoughts  presented,  we  become  aware  that  we  have 
been  considering  the  subject-matter  of  a  kindergarten 
program,  the  genetic-developing  method  by  which  it 
is  assimilated,  and  its  immediate  goal  in  the  child's 
dawning  feeling  of  himself  as  an  individual  member  of 
a  social  whole.  Were  it  possible  to  consider  in  similar 
detail  the  life  of  the  kindergarten  throughout  the  year, 
it  would  be  easy  to  show  that,  by  steps  as  short,  easy, 
and  natural  as  those  already  taken,  the  kindergarten 
becomes  a  primary  revelation  of  the  ethical  ideals  em- 
bodied hi  the  institutions  of  family,  civil  society,  state 
and  church.  Should  there  seem  anything  forced  and  un- 
natural in  the  brief  description  we  shall  now  attempt 
to  give  of  this  revealing  process,  it  is  hoped  that  our 
readers  will  generously  recognize  that  the  reason  may 
lie,  not  in  the  procedure  of  the  kindergarten,  but  in 
the  defect  necessarily  attaching  to  condensed  state- 
ment. 

With  this  appeal  for  a  sympathetic  judgment  we 
venture  to  present  a  cinematographic  picture  of  kinder- 
garten experience  after  the  three  weeks  which  have  al- 
ready been  considered.  During  the  twelfth  week  of  the 


168  THE  KINDERGABTEN 

kindergarten  year  the  first  climax  of  the  program  is 
reached  in  the  Thanksgiving  festival,  and  with  this 
climax  present  in  her  own  mind  from  the  beginning, 
the  kindergartner  selects  from  the  offerings  of  life  those 
which  will  develop  hi  children  some  faint  presentiment 
of  the  beauty  of  universal  service,  some  responsive 
feeling  of  gratitude,  and  some  desire  to  share  the  work 
which  all  are  doing.  The  point  of  departure  for  this 
vision  of  service  is  baby's  visit  and  pictures  of  what 
mother  does  for  baby.  Responsive  feeling  is  expressed 
in  and  developed  through  doll  plays.  There  follow 
sympathetic  representations,  pictures,  and  stories  of 
the  home  and  the  family  with  their  interpretation 
through  the  natural  analogues  of  the  Bird's  Nest  and 
the  Pigeon-House.  From  the  home  and  the  family 
there  is  a  simple  and  natural  expansion  to  industrial 
service.  The  child's  glass  of  milk  is  traced  backward, 
through  milkman  and  farmer,  to  the  cow;  his  bread, 
through  baker  and  miller,  to  the  farmer.  The  de- 
pendence of  the  farmer  upon  sunshine  and  shower  is 
suggested.  The  children  themselves  plant  wheat  and 
corn.  They  also  pound  wheat,  make  bread,  churn 
butter.  They  make  an  excursion  to  the  bakery  and 
another  to  the  market,  where  there  is  unrolled  before 
them  a  panorama  of  service.  Vegetables  and  fruits  of 
different  lands  are  brought  to  the  kindergarten,  named, 
examined,  modeled,  cut,  drawn,  painted,  and  used  as 
elements  in  rhythmic  design.  Animal  service  of  vari- 
ous kinds  is  suggested,  represented  in  play,  and  de- 
scribed in  story.  The  accent  of  life  is  placed  upon 
harvesting  as  the  climax  of  the  autumn  season. 
Finally,  as  Thanksgiving  approaches  there  are  stories 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  167 

about  going  to  grandmother's  and  cheery  conversations 
about  seeing  uncles,  aunts,  and  little  cousins. 

The  last  day  of  the  kindergarten  before  the  children 
disperse  for  the  holiday  season  arrives.  When  they 
enter  the  kindergarten  there  bursts  upon  them  a  pic- 
ture they  will  never  forget.  The  room  has  become  a 
bower  decorated  with  flowers,  fruits,  vegetables,  masses 
of  wheat  sheaves  and  corn  stalks  and  great  bunches  of 
hay.  The  object  of  this  decoration  of  the  kindergarten 
room  is  to  make  a  pictorial  summary  of  the  children's 
experience  and  to  embody  in  a  visual  image  the  beauty 
of  universal  service.  There  follows  the  representation 
of  this  service  in  the  games  which  now  evolve  into  a 
simple  drama  with  its  dances  and  choruses.  In  the 
center  of  the  circle  sit  grandfather  and  grandmother 
waiting  for  their  grown-up  children  and  their  little 
grandchildren.  A  family  consisting  of  father,  mother, 
and  children  enter  the  circle.  The  family  song  is  sung. 
Glad  greetings  are  interchanged,  after  which  a  tiny 
circle  is  formed  around  grandfather  and  grandmother, 
and  the  family  enjoys  a  gay  dance.  Enter,  a  second 
family,  and  greetings  are  interchanged  not  only  with 
grandparents  but  with  uncles,  aunts,  and  cousins. 
A  larger  circle  is  formed,  and  music  and  dance  repeated. 
After  this  second  dance  the  circle  of  the  two  families 
stands  still  while  the  concentric  circle,  including  all  the 
rest  of  the  kindergarten  children,  begins  the  representa- 
tion of  industrial  service.  Pat-a-cake  is  played;  the 
family  circle  sings  a  chorus  of  thanks  to  the  circle  of 
bakers.  Then  to  the  accompaniment  of  gay  music  the 
inner  circle  dances  to  the  right  —  the  outer  to  the  left. 
Millers  and  farmers  follow  the  bakers  with  intervening 


168  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

thanks  and  dances.  To  the  pictured  service  of  man  suc- 
ceeds the  liveliest  portion  of  the  little  drama  as  animal 
helpers  of  different  kinds  announce  their  presence  by 
galloping,  trotting,  flying,  creeping,  mooing,  barking, 
baa-ing,  clucking,  quacking,  and  shouting  cock-a- 
doodle-doo.  Last  of  all,  the  pattering  rain  softens  the 
ground,  there  is  a  simple  song  of  the  sunshine,  and  with 
hearts  attuned  to  thanks  the  happy  little  members  of 
the  kindergarten  community  close  their  drama  of 
life  with  a  quiet  hymn. 

When  the  children  return  to  the  kindergarten  after 
Thanksgiving,  they  always  have  much  to  tell  about 
what  they  did  on  that  great  day,  and  the  kindergartner 
should  assure  to  each  little  child  the  opportunity  of 
narrating  his  happy  experience.  To  the  recall  and  in- 
terchange of  individual  experience  succeeds  the  recall 
of  collective  experience  through  rehearsal  of  all  the 
games  thus  far  developed  and  through  looking  at 
pictures  illustrating  their  themes.  A  final  review  and 
survey  of  experience  is  made  by  an  excursion  to  a  toy- 
shop, where  the  children  see  dolls  and  doll  houses,  tiny 
furniture  for  bedrooms,  dining-rooms,  parlors,  laun- 
dries, and  kitchens,  toy  animals  of  all  kinds,  vehicles 
of  every  description;  ships,  locomotives  and  cars, 
mills,  bakeries,  and  farmyards.  A  visit  to  a  toy-shop 
does  for  a  child  what  a  visit  to  a  great  World's  Fair 
does  for  the  adult.  It  is  a  reproduction  on  a  Lilliputian 
scale  of  the  world  as  he  is  beginning  to  know  it,  and 
therefore  a  final  concrete  summary  of  his  experience. 
After  this  visit  the  game  of  the  Toyman  is  evolved, 
each  child  so  far  as  possible  contributing  his  selected 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  169 

item  to  the  dramatized  retrospect  of  a  delightful  ex- 
perience. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  middle  of  December,  and 
it  should  therefore  be  evident  that  the  toy-shop  will 
offer  not  only  a  retrospect  but  also  an  anticipation 
of  experience.  It  will  point  forwards  to  Christmas  as 
well  as  backwards  to  Thanksgiving,  and  upon  the  can- 
vas of  childish  imagination  will  be  painted  pictures 
of  Santa  Claus,  Christmas  trees,  Christmas  stockings, 
and  Christmas  presents. 

To  the  little  child  Christmas  is  first  of  all  a  time 
when  from  mysterious  sources  shall  come  to  him  trea- 
sures secretly  desired.  The  knife  he  has  wanted  so  long 
may  hide  in  the  toe  of  his  Christmas  stocking.  A  paint- 
box like  that  he  saw  in  the  toy-shop  may  hang  from 
some  branch  of  the  Christmas  tree.  Father  may  give 
him  a  box  of  tools  which  will  make  him  a  carpenter 
indeed.  The  familiar  poem  "A  Visit  from  St.  Nicholas  " 
projects  the  secret  hopes  and  far  surmises  stirring  in 
every  little  mind,  and  as  the  children  listen  to  it  again 
and  again  during  the  two  weeks  preceding  the  Christ- 
mas celebration  it  clarifies  the  experience  through  which 
they  are  living. 

The  kindergartner  must  share  the  secret  hopes  and 
anticipated  surprises  of  her  children  and  lead  from  them 
to  the  thought  of  surprising  father,  mother,  sister, 
brother,  and  baby  with  something  they  want.  She 
should  interest  the  children  in  attempts  to  find  out 
what  these  wants  may  be,  and  finally  concentrate  the 
life  of  the  entire  little  community  in  making  Christ- 
mas presents  and  beginning  to  know  in  a  small  way 
how  much  more  blessed  it  is  to  give  than  to  receive. 


170  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

But  why  should  all  this  giving  and  receiving  of  pre- 
sents come  every  year  on  Christmas  day?  Why,  in- 
deed, unless  on  that  day  we  celebrate  our  own  recep- 
tion of  the  great  gifts  through  which  we  have  learned 
to  know  the  heart  of  the  Divine  Giver?  History  tells 
us  that  into  the  Christmas  festival  humanity  has 
poured  the  ever  accumulating  riches  of  its  spiritual 
experience.  In  it  are  reverberations  of  yule-tide  and 
sacred  trees;  of  the  worship  of  the  ever  victorious,  ever 
beneficent  sun;  of  that  ancient  feast,  the  Vigil  of  the 
Mothers,  palpitating  with  a  nascent  feeling  of  the  con- 
tinuity of  mankind;  of  that  great  struggle  within  the 
Christian  Church  whose  outcome  was  the  assurance 
that  the  divine  and  the  human  are  not  mutually  ex- 
cluding, but  mutually  interpenetrating.  We  celebrate 
Christmas  most  truly  when  we  gather  into  it  all  these 
strands  of  spiritual  experience.  We  rejoice  as  did  our 
forefathers  in  that  mysterious  life  enshrined  within  the 
sacred  tree.  Our  hearts  are  glad  within  us  because  once 
again  the  earth  shall  receive  from  the  sun  richer  stores 
of  light  and  heat.  We  express  our  sense  of  human 
continuity  by  giving  our  little  presents  to  the  children 
who  are  so  soon  to  fill  the  places  we  must  leave  vacant. 
We  stir  in  the  souls  of  the  children  some  presentiment 
of  a  divine  humanity  by  telling  them  the  story  of  the 
one  divine  human  life.1 

The  tiniest  child  in  a  kindergarten  knows  the  mean- 
ing of  a  birthday.  We  tell  him  Christmas  is  the  birth- 
day of  the  little  child  whose  picture  hangs  on  the  wall 
of  the  kindergarten;  that  this  little  child  was  given 

1  The  writer  of  this  report  desires  to  acknowledge  her  obligation 
to  a  Christmas  sermon  of  the  Rev.  Percy  Stickney  Grant. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  171 

«o  the  world  by  the  Heavenly  Father,  and  that  when 
he  grew  to  be  a  man  he  was  so  strong  and  brave,  so 
wise,  so  gentle,  and  so  loving  that  every  one  who  knew 
him  felt  as  if  he  had  seen  God.  Then  we  repeat  as  nearly 
as  possible  in  the  matchless  Bible  words  the  story  of 
the  Nativity  and  show  pictures  of  the  Christ-Child  in 
the  manger;  the  mother  watching  over  him;  the  won- 
dering cattle,  the  shepherds  listening  to  the  angels' 
song,  and  the  wise  men  following  the  Star. 

As  the  first  climax  of  the  program  was  the  Thanks- 
giving festival,  so  the  second  is  the  Christmas  cele- 
bration. The  contrast  between  the  two  climaxes  is  as 
suggestive  as  their  connection.  The  Thanksgiving  fes- 
tival concentrates  attention  on  all  that  the  children 
have  received  from  nature,  man,  and  God,  and  strives 
to  kindle  the  spark  of  gratitude.  The  Christmas  cele- 
bration concentrates  interest  on  the  higher  joy  of  giv- 
ing. Marching  together  into  the  kindergarten,  the 
children  behold  the  Christmas  tree  resplendent  with 
light  and  color  and  laden  with  the  gifts  they  have 
worked  so  hard  to  finish.  Fathers  and  mothers  greet 
them  with  loving  eyes  and  smiles.  Little  hearts  flutter 
in  anticipation  of  joyful  surprises  they  have  prepared 
for  others.  Christmas  carols  are  sung,  parents  and 
friends  welcomed,  presents  joyfully  distributed  and 
thoughts  of  self  banished  by  the  expulsive  power  of 
thoughts  for  others.  "All  giving,"  says  Froebel,  "is 
linked  with  receiving,  or  rather  let  me  say  all  giving 
blossoms  out  of  receiving."  In  the  kindergarten  Christ- 
mas is  the  blossom  of  Thanksgiving.  The  little  recipient 
of  universal  gifts  becomes  himself  a  giver.  In  its  deep- 
est aspect  Christmas  is  a  perpetual  revelation  of  the 


172  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

self-imparting  life  of  God  —  a  perpetual  appeal  to 
God's  children  to  share  the  blessedness  of  their  Hea- 
venly Father. 

Four  months  of  the  kindergarten  year  have  elapsed. 
Out  of  the  feeling  of  community  have  been  developing 
the  habits  of  industry,  order,  punctuality,  cleanliness, 
courtesy,  and  kindness.  Through  doll  plays  and  care 
for  animals  and  plants  there  has  been  a  quickening 
of  nurturing  impulses.  A  dramatic,  literary,  and  pic- 
torial representation  has  been  made  of  two  of  the 
great  human  institutions  —  the  family  and  civil  so- 
ciety. Excursions  have  led  out  into  the  life  of  nature, 
and  natural  analogies  have  clarified  the  pictures  of 
life  beginning  to  form  themselves  in  the  children's 
minds.  The  frame  of  the  picture  of  life  was  the  autumn 
season.  The  high  lights  of  the  picture  were  upon  the 
two  great  festivals  —  Thanksgiving  and  Christmas. 
Finally,  a  beginning  was  made  in  the  religious  inter- 
pretation of  life  by  the  revelation  of  God  as  a  loving 
Giver  and  by  stirring  the  desire  of  responsive  giving. 

During  the  four  months  now  past  one  thing  was 
done  which  as  yet  has  not  been  mentioned.  There 
were  constant  glances  forward  from  what  was,  toward 
what  was  to  be.  Falling  leaves,  abandoned  nests, 
south-flying  birds,  squirrels  storing  nuts,  children  don- 
ning warmer  coats,  animals  covering  themselves  with 
thicker  fur  were  all  noticed  as  heralds  of  the  approach- 
ing winter.  The  spirit  which  was  in  the  air  during  the 
fall  elections  reverberated  in  the  kindergarten  children 
and  was  seized  upon  as  a  point  of  departure  for  experi- 
ences which  are  to  reach  their  climax  in  Washington's 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  173 

Birthday.  If  soldiers  have  marched  by  the  kindergar- 
ten, exercises  have  been  stopped  that  the  children 
might  see  them.  If  there  has  been  a  parade  of  soldiers 
anywhere  within  walking  distance  our  embryo  patriots 
have  been  among  its  delighted  witnesses. 

What  now  are  the  new  experiences  which  shall 
determine  the  order  of  life  in  our  little  community 
when  children  return  to  the  kindergarten  after  Christ- 
mas holidays?  The  question  need  only  be  asked  to 
answer  itself.  They  will  wish  to  tell  their  holiday 
experiences  and  to  show  each  other  their  Christmas 
presents.  They  will  have  heard  of  the  New  Year  and 
perhaps  of  making  good  resolutions.  Snow  is  falling 
and  snow  crystals  may  be  caught.  Snow  is  on  the 
ground  and  it  is  time  for  the  delights  of  sleighing  and 
coasting.  There  is  ice  for  skating  and  sliding.  There 
are  wonderful  frost  pictures  on  the  windows.  Other  pic- 
tures no  less  wonderful  may  be  seen  in  the  glowing  em- 
bers of  winter  fires.  Best  of  all,  around  these  fires  in 
the  gathering  twilight  children  in  happy  homes  sit  lis- 
tening to  wonder  tales.  Days  are  short;  the  dark  de- 
scends before  children  are  tucked  away  to  sleep,  and 
night  after  night  they  may  see  the  moon  sailing  high 
in  the  sky  and  gaze  with  wonder  at  the  twinkling  stars. 
The  brilliant  sunlight  brings  greatest  rejoicing  because 
of  its  contrast  with  ashen  skies.  And  —  climax  of  all 
the  winter  as  Thanksgiving  is  climax  of  the  autumn  — 
there  is  our  national  festival  of  Washington's  Birthday 
which  in  the  kindergarten  is  seized  upon  as  its  greatest 
opportunity  for  fanning  the  spark  of  patriotism. 

Having  summoned  before  us  the  typical  experiences 
which  await  our  little  community,  let  us  now  attempt 


174  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

to  indicate  as  briefly  as  possible  the  reaction  of  the  kin- 
dergarten upon  them.  It  will  be  remembered  that,  in 
our  retrospect  of  the  four  months  during  which  this 
little  community  has  already  shared  a  common  life, 
attention  was  called  to  the  habits  which  had  been 
gradually  establishing  themselves.  It  is  now  time  that 
these  habits  should  begin  to  define  themselves  as  con- 
scious ideals,  and  one  aim  of  the  kindergarten  during 
the  remainder  of  the  year  will  be  to  abet  this  self -defin- 
ing process.1  The  limits  of  a  report  forbid  more  than  a 
single  illustration  of  the  method  of  definition,  but  it  is 
hoped  our  readers  will  understand  that  the  process  now 
to  be  shown  in  the  concrete  example  of  evolving  the 
ideal  of  punctuality  is  repeated  in  the  evolution  of  all 
elementary  ideals  of  conduct. 

The  point  of  departure  for  the  evolution  of  a  conscious 
ideal  of  punctuality  is  the  game  of  the  clock  which 
is  created  by  the  children.  Making  themselves  into 
clocks  by  imitating  the  rhythmic  swing  of  the  pendu- 
lum, showing  the  movement  of  the  hand  and  reiterat- 
ing the  monotonous  tick-tack-tick,  they  develop  in 
themselves  a  kind  of  clock  consciousness.  Having  been 
clocks  they  are  more  ready  to  listen  to  what  the  clock 
says.  They  look  at  the  Mother  Play  picture  illustrating 
the  clock  game,  and  find  out  what  the  mother  is  doing, 
what  the  baby  is  doing,  what  the  older  children  are 
doing,  and  what  connection  there  is  between  these  sev- 
eral deeds  and  the  hours  struck  by  the  clock.  Having 
played  the  clock  game  and  scrutinized  the  clock  pic- 
ture, they  arc  ready  to  listen  with  some  divining  sense 

1  The  reader  will  observe  that  this  self-definition  of  habits  illus- 
trates the  second  demand  of  the  genetic  method. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  175 

of  its  meaning  to  a  wonder  story  like  the  Enchanted 
Watch.  At  last  the  conscious  question  forms  itself  in 
their  minds,  What  does  the  clock  say  to  us  ?  —  and 
with  the  joy  of  discoverers  they  answer  to  themselves: 
Time  to  get  up;  time  for  breakfast;  time  to  go  to  kin- 
dergarten; time  to  sing;  work;  play  games;  listen  to 
stories;  time  to  go  home;  time  for  dinner;  time  to  play 
out  of  doors;  time  for  supper;  time  to  go  to  bed.  Their 
next  discovery,  incited  by  guileful  suggestions  from  the 
alert  kindergartner,  adds  to  their  sense  of  the  clock's 
importance.  It  tells  grown  people  as  well  as  children 
what  to  do  and  when.  It  tells  father  when  to  go  to  his 
business.  It  tells  the  teacher  when  to  go  to  school.  It 
tells  the  cook  when  breakfast,  dinner,  supper  must  be 
ready.  It  tells  the  milkman  when  to  bring  milk,  the 
butcher  when  to  send  meat,  the  baker  when  to  deliver 
bread.  Within  little  minds  stirs  faint  suspicion  of  what 
would  be  the  chaos  of  life  without  the  order  which 
measure  of  time  makes  possible,  and  from  responsive 
wills  comes  the  conscious  resolution  to  listen  to  the 
clock  and  obey  its  mandates. 

It  has  seemed  important  to  describe  in  detail  the 
uplifting  of  a  single  forming  habit  into  a  conscious 
jdeal  through  whose  reaction  the  habit  itself  is  forti- 
fied, because  with  this  development  of  conscious  ideals 
we  enter  upon  a  new  phase  in  the  self-evolving  life  of 
the  kindergarten.1  It  will  not  be  necessary  to  describe 
in  similar  detail  all  the  new  activities  developed  in 
response  to  seasonal  incitement,  as  the  general  method 
of  the  program  has  been  sufficiently  illustrated.  So 

1  It  is  to  be  understood  that  other  forming  habits  are  similarly 
uplifted  into  ideals  —  notably  the  habit  of  attention. 


170  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

we  pass  over  snowflake  and  snowball  games,  sleighing, 
coasting,  sliding,  and  skating  games,  in  order  to  devote 
more  time  to  consideration  of  the  most  far-reaching 
influences  exerted  upon  kindergarten  children  during 
the  winter  months,  which  are  undoubtedly  those  be- 
ginning with  the  direction  of  attention  to  the  moon 
and  stars  and  ending  with  the  celebration  of  Washing- 
ton's Birthday.  The  connection  between  the  terminus 
ab  quo  and  the  terminus  ad  quern  of  this  process  of 
development  is  far  from  obvious  yet  very  real.  We 
must  approach  its  consideration  by  a  somewhat  circui- 
tous path. 

Max  Miiller  has  said  that  "the  fact,  which  if  fully 
appreciated  will  be  felt  to  be  pregnant  with  the  most 
startling  and  instructive  lessons  of  antiquity,  is  that 
Zeus,  the  most  sacred  name  in  Greek  mythology,  is  the 
same  word  as  Dyaus  in  Sanskrit,  Jems,  or  Ju  in  Jupi- 
ter, in  Latin,  Tiw  in  Anglo-Saxon,  preserved  in  Tiws- 
daeg,  Tuesday,  the  day  of  the  Eddie  god  Tyr;  Zio  in 
Old  High-German."  This  venerable  word,  he  adds, 
"  was  framed  once  and  once  only;  it  reveals  the  earliest 
religious  thought  of  our  Aryan  race  and  it  means  — 
Sky."  > 

The  clew  to  this  most  startling  lesson  of  antiquity  is 
suggested  by  a  thoughtful  writer  who  says  that  "one  of 
the  first  elements  in  education  is  the  sense  of  space,  of 
which  sense  the  star-dwelt  heaven  is  probably  the  first 
awakener."  2  The  meaning  of  this  suggestion  dawns 
upon  us  as  we  dwell  upon  the  thought  of  how  different 
it  would  be  with  all  of  us  were  we  prisoners  in  a  world 

1  Science  of  Language,  vol.  n,  pp.  337,  576. 

*  George  Macdooald,  What  '*  Mine's  Mine,  p.  176. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  177 

whose  low-hanging  skies  were  only  a  few  miles  above 
our  heads.  In  such  a  world  there  could  be  no  sense  of 
majesty,  no  longing  for  liberty,  no  feeling  of  heights 
above  and  depths  beneath,  no  divination  by  the  pre- 
scient spirit  of  an  infinitely  transcendent  God.  For 
"Space  is  the  body  to  the  idea  of  liberty,"  *  and  liberty 
alone  is  majesty  and  transcendence.  It  is  outer  space 
which  awakens  the  spacious  soul.  It  is  the  visible  sym- 
bol of  infinitude  which  stirs  and  summons  the  infinitude 
of  the  spirit. 

The  infinitude  of  space  is  suggested  by  its  sphericity. 
If  when  we  lifted  our  gaze  skyward  the  apparent  form 
which  met  our  eyes  was  a  cube,  we  should  know  that 
space  extended  farther  in  some  directions  than  in 
others  and  should  quickly  suspect  that  in  all  directions 
it  was  limited.  The  spherical  form  of  space  is  "a  fore- 
shortening of  infinitude  that  it  may  enter  our  sight; 
there  is  no  imagining  of  a  limit  to  it;  it  is  a  sphere  only 
in  this  that  in  no  one  direction  can  we  come  nearer  to 
its  circumference  than  in  another.  This  infinite  sphere 
or  spheric  infinitude  is  the  only  figure,  image,  emblem, 
symbol  fit  to  begin  to  make  us  know  God.  Over  and 
around  us  we  have  the  one  perfect  shape.  It  is  not  put 
there  for  the  purpose  of  representing  God.  It  is  there 
of  necessity  because  of  its  nature  and  its  nature  is  its 
relation  to  God.  It  is  God's  thinking,  —  and  that  half- 
sphere  above  men's  heads  with  influence  endlessly 
beyond  the  reach  of  their  consciousness  is  the  begin- 
ning of  all  revelation  of  Him  to  men."  2 

1  George  Macdonald,  What's  Mine's  Mine,  p.  296. 
1  George  Macdonald,  What's  Mine's  Mine,  pp.  296,  299.  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  making  some  omissions  and  transpositions. 


178  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

The  first  suggestion  of  the  sky  is  infinitude.  Its 
second  and  no  less  pregnant  suggestion  is  that  of  a 
spheric  totality  peopled  with  spheres.  Within  infinite 
or  self-limited  space  revolve  the  heavenly  spheres,  and 
through  this  including  yet  relating  environment  each 
world  receives  the  guarantee  of  individuality.  The 
star-sown  sky  is  a  visible  analogue  of  the  inclusion  of 
all  spirits  in  God  and  a  symbolic  adumbration  of  the 
emancipating  truth  that  through  this  very  inclusion  is 
assured  "the  eternal  form  which  shall  still  divide  the 
eternal  soul  from  all  beside." 

The  discernible  suggestion  of  the  overarching  sky, 
coupled  with  the  historic  response  to  this  suggestion, 
impels  us  to  strange  surmises  when  we  consider  that 
the  most  startling  discovery  of  contemporary  psycho- 
logy is  the  immeasurable  power  of  suggestion.  Rever- 
ent minds  are  seeking  to  fathom  its  mystery.  Number- 
less experiments  are  being  made  to  test  its  effects. 
May  it  be  that  the  mysterious  power  man  is  just  learn- 
ing to  wield  consciously  is  the  power  through  which 
from  the  beginning  God  has  touched  to  fairer  issues  the 
souls  of  his  human  children?  Is  it  folly  to  suspect  that 
the  incitements  of  nature  are  suggestions  from  God; 
that  her  particular  objects  are  images  of  divine 
thoughts;  that  her  relations  adumbrate  connections 
between  divine  thoughts;  that  her  laws  reveal  processes 
of  divine  thinking  and  that  her  frame  of  infinite  space 
is  the  blank  form  of  the  Divine  Mind? 

It  was  from  no  accident,  but  by  the  constraint  of 
divine  suggestion,  that  in  the  overarching  sky  men 
began  to  know  a  sky-father.  It  is  no  chance  connec- 
tion which  binds  the  dome  of  our  National  Capitol 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  179 

to  the  dome  of  heaven.  Without  that  heavenly  dome 
the  limit-transcending  power  to  which  we  give  the 
holy  name  of  freedom  might  never  have  wakened  in  the 
human  soul,  and  without  the  awakening  consciousness 
of  freedom  men  would  never  have  known  the  correla- 
tive idea  of  justice.  The  foreshortening  of  infinitude 
in  the  spherical  form  of  space  is  God's  primal  sugges- 
tion of  his  own  infinite  being.  The  star-sown  sky  is  his 
primal  revelation  of  that  cosmic  community  wherein  is 
realized  the  ideal  of  the  Gliedganzes. 

Science  is  the  answer  of  man  to  the  suggestions  of 
nature.  The  two  great  deeds  of  science  have  been  the 
expansion  of  the  universe  and  its  integration.  Astron- 
omy has  extended  the  universe  in  space;  geology  in 
time;  and  biology  has  made  us  spectators  of  that  long 
and  painful  travail  of  nature  through  which  humanity 
was  born.  While  extending  the  universe,  science  ha* 
also  unified  it,  and  her  consummate  revelation  is  that  of 
a  great  interrelated  whole  wherein  "each  clod  vibrates 
with  pulsations  from  the  farthest  star,"  and  wherein 
all  that  is  is  inextricably  linked  with  all  that  has  been. 

It  is  necessary  to  know  our  distant  educational  goal 
in  order  to  take  even  the  first  short  steps  on  the  path 
which  winds  slowly  upward  towards  that  goal.  In  this 
seventy-second  year  since  the  kindergarten  was  born, 
it  should  be  superfluous  to  say  that  we  do  not  hold 
that  any  of  the  thoughts  we  have  been  suggesting 
should  be  suggested  to  babies.  It  is  far  from  superflu- 
ous to  add  that  only  as  we  ourselves  have  intimately 
pondered  them  shall  we  be  able  to  respond  with  wisdom 
to  the  astonishment  of  children  in  presence  of  sky, 
moon,  and  stars. 


180  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

It  is  a  grave  error  to  suppose  that  because  animism 
is  native  to  childhood  we  should  meet  it  on  a  prehis- 
toric level.  The  fact  that  children  often  say  the  moon 
has  a  nose  and  eyes  does  not  justify  us  in  telling  them 
of  a  man  in  the  moon.  It  may  be  native  animism  when 
children  describe  thunder  as  God  rolling  barrels,  but 
if  we  acquiesce  in  such  a  description  we  arrest  intelli- 
gence. Still  worse  is  it  when,  deserting  animism,  we 
tell  children  that  the  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese  or 
that  stars  are  holes  in  the  sky. 

In  one  of  the  most  illuminating  commentaries  of  the 
Mother  Play,  Froebel  tells  us  that,  "by  loyal  attention 
and  response  to  the  hints  thrown  out  by  childhood  and 
by  an  education  consonant  with  the  needs  of  childhood, 
we  may  revive  the  mythic  period  of  human  history, 
with  its  dross  cleansed,  its  darkness  illumined,  its  aims 
and  ideals  purified."  What  hints  thrown  out  by  chil- 
dren will  teach  us  to  respond  wisely  to  their  astonish- 
ment in  presence  of  the  moon  and  stars?  What  myths 
of  primitive  men  help  us  to  interpret  these  hints? 

The  common  saying  that  we  must  not  be  like  chil- 
dren who  try  to  grasp  the  moon  apprizes  us  of  the  most 
universal  hint  childhood  has  given  with  regard  to  its 
response  to  the  moon's  incitement.  The  story  of  Babel 
and  the  many  myths  of  sky-climbing  heroes1  apprise 
us  that,  though  men  learned  after  a  while  that  heaven 
was  not  near,  they  were  long  in  suspecting  its  infinite 
recession.  Other  primitive  myths  recount  the  disasters 
which  befell  men  or  giants  who  tried  to  seize  for  them- 
selves the  lights  of  heaven.  All  little  children  re-live 
these  primitive  experiences.  The  baby  cries  for  the 

1  See  John  Fiske,  Myths  and  Myth  Makers,  pp.  23,  151,  162,  16a 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  181 

moon  and  reaches  forth  his  hand  to  seize  it.  The  little 
lad  has  learned  that  it  is  not  within  reach  of  his  arm, 
but  believes  that  by  the  help  of  a  high  ladder  he  might 
attain  it. 

If  the  hints  of  childhood  convey  any  educational 
suggestion;  if  this  suggestion  is  reinforced  by  primi- 
tive myths;  if  science  has  truly  interpreted  the  intima- 
tions of  nature;  and  if,  above  all,  an  ever-greatening 
universe  means  an  ever-greatening  God  and  an  ever- 
greatening  manhood,  —  then  should  not  the  very  first 
thing  we  do  for  little  children,  when  they  begin  to 
wonder  about  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  be  to  call  forth 
in  imagination  some  prescience  of  their  distance  and 
their  size?  If  as  the  cosmos  has  expanded  in  men's 
minds  it  has  been  integrated  by  their  thought,  should 
not  our  next  effort  be  to  stir  some  faint  premonition  of 
the  ties  between  the  earth  and  the  heavenly  spheres 
and  especially  to  help  children  to  realize  that  without 
the  sun  there  could  be  no  water,  no  fire,  no  grass,  trees, 
flowers,  animals,  men;  ocean  and  rivers  would  be  ice 
and  the  whole  earth  cold,  dark,  barren,  and  dead?  If 
"throughout  the  world  of  sense,  even  as  an  object  is 
sublime  or  fair,"  it  is  given  not  to  one,  but  to  all,  should 
we  not  help  children  to  learn  from  this  parable  of 
nature  that  all  best  gifts  are  sharable  gifts,  and  that 
"so  much  the  more  as  one  says  our,  so  much  the  more 
each  one  possesseth"?  Finally,  if  there  be  a  spiritual 
as  well  as  a  physical  astronomy  and  if  the  higher  value 
of  the  latter  be  to  suggest  the  former,  should  we  not  do 
well  to  heed  the  words  of  Froebel,  who  in  the  Mother 
Play  writes  as  follows :  — 

"Confronted  by  objects  which  he  does  not  under- 


182  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

stand,  the  child  accepts  with  simple  faith  the  explana- 
tion of  his  elders.  Whether  such  explanations  be  true 
or  false,  he  accepts  them  with  equal  ease.  Hence  by 
false  explanations  the  child  may  be  led  to  conceive 
the  moon  as  a  man  and  the  stars  as  gold  pins  or  burn- 
ing lamps.  On  the  other  hand,  by  means  of  true  though 
necessarily  partial  explanations,  he  may  recognize  in 
the  former  a  beautiful  shining,  swimming  ball,  and  in 
the  latter  great  blazing  suns  which  only  look  so  tiny 
because  they  are  so  far  off. 

"The  one  way  of  looking  at  moon  and  stars  despite 
its  apparent  life  is  barren  and  lifeless.  The  other  bears 
within  it  a  seed  of  thought  which  may  later  develop 
into  rational  insight.  Why  should  we  withhold  from 
children  a  living  and  life-giving  explanation  and  weigh 
them  down  with  a  dead  one?" 

In  a  recent  novel,  which  is  a  remarkable  study  of  the 
influence  of  both  social  and  physical  environment, 
there  is  an  illuminating  description  of  the  reaction  of 
the  homes  of  the  Middle  Ages  upon  the  little  children 
who  were  born  in  them.  "  The  mental  and  moral  gloom 
of  these  homes,"  we  read,  "hung  destructively,  ap- 
pallingly over  children.  The  very  architecture  taught 
them  their  first  bad  lessons.  Lifted  in  their  nurses'  or 
mothers'  arms,  they  peered  from  parapet  down  upon 
drawbridge  and  moat  —  at  danger.  At  the  entrance 
they  saw  massive  doors  built  to  shut  out  death,  per- 
haps battle-hacked,  blood-stained.  From  these  they 
learned  violence  and  the  habit  of  killing.  Trap-doors 
taught  them  treachery.  Sliding  panels  in  walls  taught 
them  cunning,  flight,  cowardice,  and  eavesdropping. 
Underground  dungeons  taught  them  revenge,  cruelty, 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  183 

persecution  to  the  death.  They  might  look  down  into 
one  and  see  lying  there  some  victim  of  slow  starvation 
or  slow  torture.  Nearly  every  leading  vicious  trait 
born  in  them  seized  upon  the  house  itself  for  develop- 
ment and  began  to  clamber  up  its  way  as  naturally  as 
castle-ivy." l 

If  we  really  believe  in  the  influence  of  environment, 
we  must  often  be  troubled  in  spirit  as  we  ponder  the 
suggestions  to  sloth,  gluttony,  and  covetousness  made 
by  too  many  of  our  contemporary  homes  of  wealth, 
and  must  be  filled  with  heavy  forebodings  of  danger  to 
our  national  ideal  as  we  consider  the  suggestion  of 
slums  and  tenement  houses,  of  narrow  streets  crowded 
with  wares  easy  to  snatch  and  hide,  of  the  commercial 
advertisements  which  everywhere  attack  the  eye,  of 
the  countless  sights,  sounds,  odors,  and  motions  whose 
incitement  must  belittle  and  debase  imagination.  We 
hope  for  a  time  when  these  debasing  influences  shall 
have  disappeared  and  when  a  noble  humanity  shall 
have  created  an  environment  appealing  to  all  that  is 
noble  in  the  spirit  of  childhood.  But  we  know  that 
even  in  that  distant  day  flowers  shall  discover  to 
the  heart  its  own  tender  meanings  ;  the  nurturing  bird 
shall  quicken  the  nurturing  impulse  and  the  soaring 
bird  rejoice  the  soaring  spirit;  mountain  peaks  shall 
call  forth  spiritual  climbers  ;  the  storm-tossed  sea 
shall  interpret  the  storm- tossed  soul ;  and  the  human 
mind  adapted  to  infinitude  shall  receive  its  high- 
est incitements  from  moon  and  stars,  sun  and  sky. 
For  language  and  myth,  poetry  and  religion  assure 
us  that  these  are  the  perpetual  suggestions  through 
1  James  Lane  Allen,  The  Doctor's  Christmas  Eve. 


184  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

which  the  Divine  Mind  stimulates  impulses  akin  to 
divinity. 

In  interpreting  to  children  the  rich  influences  which 
stream  towards  them  from  the  sky,  we  have  found  in- 
valuable aid  in  Froebel's  great  book,  the  Mother  Play, 
and  particularly  in  the  songs  and  pictures  of  the  Child 
and  Moon,  the  Boy  and  Moon,  the  Little  Maiden  and 
the  Stars,  the  Light-Bird,  and  the  Window  Songs.  Our 
little  children  in  the  kindergarten  love  these  songs  bet- 
ter than  all  others,  and  never  tire  of  searching  out  the 
details  of  the  pictures.  When  they  have  taken  these 
songs  and  pictures  into  their  hearts,  they  are  ready  to 
listen  to  wonder  tales  of  baffled  attempts  to  scale  the 
sky,  of  disasters  following  selfish  attempts  to  seize  the 
moon,  of  ruin  which  followed  the  desire  to  own  or  be 
the  sun.  Two  great  ideas  wake  up  in  their  minds,  — 
the  idea  of  how  far,  far  away  are  the  heavenly  spheres 
and  the  thought  how  wrong  it  is  to  want  for  themselves 
alone  blessings  which  belong  to  all.  To  hear  kinder- 
garten children  in  whom  these  ideas  are  dreaming,  stir- 
ring, waking,  sing  "Good  Morning,  Merry  Sunshine," 
or  to  watch  them  play  the  game  of  the  Light-Bird  is  to 
receive  a  revelation  of  what  wise  education  may  do  in 
expanding  and  ennobling  imagination. 

Casting  a  retrospective  glance  over  the  life  of  our 
little  community  during  the  first  weeks  of  the  New 
Year,  we  become  aware  that  what  has  been  going  on 
has  been  an  approach  towards  liberty  by  two  different 
paths.  The  children  have  been  freeing  themselves  from 
merely  reflex  action  by  beginning  to  define  and  obey 
ideals  of  attention,  industry,  order,  punctuality,  clean- 
liness, courtesy,  and  kindness,  and  their  minds  have 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  185 

been  liberated  and  expanded  through  the  absorption 
of  imagination  in  those  suggestions  of  nature  which 
waken  the  ideas  of  immensity  and  unity.  The  struggle 
for  liberty  of  life  through  formation  of  the  mental  and 
moral  habits  which  liberty  implies,  and  the  liberation 
of  imagination  through  presentiments  of  the  immen- 
sity of  space  and  the  universality  of  light  are  next  to 
be  followed  naturally  and  beautifully  by  a  hint  of  the 
meaning  of  freedom  as  incarnated  in  the  state  and 
typified  in  the  hero  and  the  national  flag.  For  now 
Washington's  Birthday  is  approaching;  schools  will 
give  holidays;  soldiers  will  march;  flags  will  wave; 
newspapers  will  celebrate  the  father  of  our  country; 
and  for  a  few  brief  days  the  social  atmosphere  will  be 
electric  with  patriotic  emotion. 

There  is  no  romance  of  fiction  equal  to  the  romance 
of  our  American  ideal  of  government.  With  sublime 
faith  in  humanity,  we  have  dared  to  claim  that  every 
man  is  capable  of  freedom;  therefore  it  is  not  sufficient 
for  him  to  be  well  governed;  he  must  himself  partici- 
pate in  the  governing  power.  This  emancipating  con- 
ception of  self-government  demands  self-governing 
men  and  women.  Hence,  if  we  really  believe  it,  or  even 
if  we  accept  it  as  a  working  hypothesis,  it  forces  us  to 
assume  the  great  duty  of  nurture.  We  have  dared  to 
declare  all  men  free.  So  doing,  we  have  created  the 
necessity  and  responsibility  of  educating  them  for 
freedom. 

The  state  is  the  institution  through  which  freedom 
is  defined,  protected,  and  developed.  It  asks  the  ques- 
tion how  shall  men  act  that  they  may  not  destroy  but 
increase  liberty,  and  it  answers  this  question  by  enu- 


186  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

meration  of  the  deeds  which  the  experience  of  the 
world  has  shown  to  be  productive  of  freedom.  It  makes 
laws  in  which  the  deeds  of  freedom  are  enjoined;  it  de- 
vises penalties  for  their  infringement;  it  discovers  that 
the  criterion  for  determining  free  action  is  the  princi- 
ple of  social  solidarity  and  that  actions  make  for  free- 
dom in  so  far  as  they  help  each  single  will  to  cooperate 
with  all  other  wills. 

It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  great  principles  of  liberty 
should  be  written  in  Magna  Chartas,  or  national  con- 
stitutions. They  can  only  be  perpetuated  as  they  be- 
come the  inspiration  of  individual  lives.  "  Millions  of 
individuals  make  the  people;  in  millions  of  souls  the 
life  of  the  people  is  pulsating;  but  the  conscious  and 
unconscious  working  together  of  the  millions  produces 
a  spiritual  content  in  which  the  soul  of  the  whole  people 
appears  as  a  living,  self-creating  unity."  This  living, 
self-creative  unity  is  the  state  or  nation.  It  is  greater 
than  any  or  all  of  the  individuals  it  includes,  yet  it  is 
identical  with  what  is  deepest  in  each  individual.  It  is 
man's  generic  self,  — enfolding,  protecting,  developing, 
emancipating,  his  private  and  particular  self.  It  is 
a  clarion  call  away  from  the  prison  cell  of  individual 
limitation  to  the  infinite  space  of  rational  selfhood. 
It  is  the  spiritual  sky  of  freedom,  and  as  the  dome  of  the 
physical  heaven  is  studded  with  stars  which  are  blazing 
suns,  so  the  spiritual  firmament  is  studded  with  souls 
aflame  with  the  ideals  of  liberty.  Such  souls  of  flame 
were  the  creators  of  our  republic.  Such  above  all 
others  was  the  father  of  our  country. 

The  kindergartner  whose  heart  thrills  with  our  na- 
tional impulse;  who  feels  the  sublimity  of  our  national 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  187 

ideal  that  the  nation  shall  be  not  only  over  but  in  each 
individual,  so  that  America  shall  live  in  each  American ; 
who  knows  that  "a  nation  is  a  living,  striving,  passion- 
ate soul  with  many  members  but  with  one  life,"  — 
such  a  kindergartner  will  crave  to  waken  that  sleeping 
soul  in  the  little  child,  or,  if  she  may  not  waken  it,  to 
stir  in  it  the  beautiful  dreams  which  prophesy  its 
awakening.  A  little  child  cannot  understand  the  nature 
of  the  family,  but  he  can  honor  his  father,  love  his 
mother,  be  kindly  affectioned  to  brothers  and  sisters. 
He  cannot  understand  that  complex  organization  of 
industry  through  which  each  serves  all  and  is  served 
by  all,  but  he  can  comprehend  his  dependence  upon 
baker  and  miller,  farmer  and  carpenter,  blacksmith  and 
miner,  and  can  realize  that  one  day  he,  too,  must  be 
able  to  do  some  useful  work.  He  cannot  understand 
the  great  truths  of  religion,  but  his  heart  is  touched  by 
devout  gesture  and  devout  music,  by  the  sight  of  wor- 
shiping congregations;  by  the  religion  wrought  into 
architecture,  sculpture,  and  painting,  by  the  joy  of 
Christmas,  the  triumph  of  Palm  Sunday,  the  mystery 
of  Good  Friday,  the  elation  of  Easter.  He  can  have  no 
suspicion  that  the  nation  "merges  millions  of  individ- 
uals into  one  august  personality,"  but  he  feels  the  con- 
tagion of  patriotic  emotion;  he  may  be  stirred  by  na- 
tional anniversaries;  he  may  strengthen  the  power  of 
discipline  anci  kindle  the  spark  of  devotion  by  playing 

i  "»-^^— *  *%C 

soldier  games;  his  imagination  may  be  captured  by  our 
national  flag,  and  he  may  begin  to  gaze  with  reverence 
and  wonder  at  the  great  souls  shining  like  stars  in  the 
heaven  of  freedom.  Let  us  never  fall  into  the  fatal 
error  of  supposing  that,  because  only  little  things  can 


188  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

be  done  with  the  little  child,  these  little  things  are  un- 
important. The  great  insights  which  are  embodied 
in  human  institutions  will  never  be  the  beacon  lights 
of  mature  intelligence  unless  the  impulses  which  are  the 
emotional  equivalents  of  these  insights  are  quickened 
in  childhood.  Filial  impiety  is  the  ancestor  of  marital 
infidelity,  parental  indifference,  and  egoistic  attack 
upon  the  institution  of  the  family.  Selfish  disregard  of 
the  property  rights  of  playmates  breeds  the  spirit  of 
monopoly  and  prevents  comprehension  of  the  imma- 
nent ideal  of  the  industrial  organization.  If  the  heart 
of  childhood  be  not  fertilized  with  Christian  ideals, 
we  must  expect  a  pagan  manhood;  and  if  we  allow  the 
period  of  childhood  to  pass  without  kindling  love  for 
our  national  flag,  elation  of  spirit  through  national 
songs,  reverence  for  national  heroes,  pride  and  joy  in 
national  anniversaries,  then  we  have  conspired  to  bring 
forth  the  man  without  a  country;  the  dead  soul  which 
never  to  itself  has  said,  "This  is  my  own  my  native 
land";  perhaps  even  the  anarchist  with  his  blind 
and  bigoted  faith  in  government  destruction  and  his 
fatuous  attempt  to  "save  humanity  by  blood  and 
steel,  poison  and  dynamite." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  kindergarten  has  had 
Washington's  Birthday  in  mind  from  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  and  in  anticipation  of  this  climacteric  experi- 
ence has  missed  no  parade  of  soldiers,  no  suggestion 
of  elections,  no  happening  of  the  passing  days  which 
pointed  towards  the  patriotic  ideal.  Marching  exer- 
cises have  been  developed,  and  by  early  February  the 
children  move  in  rhythmic  accord  and  are  prompt  to 
obey  the  word  of  command.  The  soldier  game  is  now 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  189 

developed  and  the  ideal  of  the  soldier  suggested  in  the 
words,  "I  go  where  my  duty,  my  country  is  calling."  l 
The  kindergarten  room  adds  to  its  incitements  a  large 
flag,  a  picture  of  our  National  Capitol,  and  a  portrait 
of  Washington.  The  children  receive  smaller  flags 
which  they  bear  proudly  aloft  when  they  play  soldier 
games.  There  is  daily  singing  of  national  songs,  and 
daily  cheering  of  the  red,  white,  and  blue.  There  are 
stories  of  heroes;  there  are  simple  talks  which  stir  some 
faint  sense  of  how  our  country  protects  each  one  of  us. 
Pictures  are  drawn  of  soldiers  on  the  march.  Tents  are 
made  and  soldiers  encamped  on  the  sand  table.  Chains 
of  red,  white,  and  blue  are  linked  to  decorate  the  room, 
and  red,  white,  and  blue  rosettes  are  fashioned  for  and 
by  the  children.  A  picture  of  the  great  national  monu- 
ment to  Washington  is  shown,  and  the  children  are  told 
it  was  reared  to  him  because  he  was  the  father  of  our 
country.  They  themselves  build  monuments  to  him 
with  their  blocks.  A  fathers'  and  mothers'  meeting  is, 
or  should  be,  held,  and  the  influence  of  the  home 
solicited  in  reinforcement  of  the  effort  of  the  kinder- 
garten. As  the  twenty-second  of  February  approaches, 
the  best  pictures  portraying  crises  in  Washington's  life 
are  shown.  They  are  allowed  to  speak  for  themselves, 
and  there  is  no  attempt  to  make  children  understand 
suggestions  which  are  only  intended  to  incite  the  ac- 

1  In  order  to  play  soldier  games  aright,  we  must  take  into  our 
hearts  "the  newer  and  more  aggressive"  ideals  of  peace.  For  the 
soldier  will  not  die  when  war  dies,  or  rather,  war  itself  will  not  die 
when  men  cease  to  slay  men.  There  is  a  knightly  warfare  to  be 
waged  against  ignorance,  disease,  vice,  and  crime.  Annies  of  soldiers 
ready  to  be  armies  of  martyrs  are  needed  for  these  nobler  and  more 
generous  battles.  2 

f 


190  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

tivity  of  imagination.  Looking  at  these  pictures  and 
helped  by  a  few  tactful  words  which  illuminate  their 
details,  the  children  begin  to  know  a  hero  who  dared, 
suffered,  endured,  prevailed.  At  last  they  are  shown 
a  picture  of  Washington  as  President.  They  feel  the 
majesty  of  his  presence  and  the  benignity  of  his  face, 
and  once  again  he  takes  his  rightful  place,  "first  in 
peace,  first  in  war,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  a  new  gene- 
ration of  his  countrymen."  Must  we  add  that  when 
his  birthday  finally  dawns,  the  kindergarten  community 
celebrates  the  third  great  climax  of  its  experience  ? 

It  is  by  staying  our  minds  on  selected  ideas  that  we 
invest  them  with  power  to  form  apperceptive  masses 
and  thereby  determine  the  trend  of  character.  Little 
children  can  hold  their  attention  to  any  idea  for  only 
a  very  brief  period.  If  we  would  endow  any  idea  with 
prevailing  influence,  we  must  recur  to  it  frequently 
and  suggest  it  through  many  different  concrete  illus- 
trations. Therefore,  during  the  weeks  which  immedi- 
ately follow  Washington's  Birthday  the  interest  of  the 
kindergarten  is  centered  in  heroes  of  different  kinds. 
The  game  of  the  Knights  is  developed.  Pictures  like 
the  beautiful  English  print  of  St.  George  and  the 
Dragon  are  shown;  the  stories  of  David,  of  St.  George, 
and  of  King  Arthur  are  told ;  heroes  of  lowly  service  are 
celebrated  and  the  children  taught  to  "honor  each 
toil-worn  craftsman,  however  humble  his  calling,  who 
braves  danger  in  doing  labor  which  furthers  the  general 
welfare."  Finally,  through  true  stories  like  the  "Little 
Hero  of  Harlem,"  or  "  Dora  and  the  Light-House,"  and 
imaginative  stories,  like  "Dorilla,"  and  "The  Line  of 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  191 

Golden  Light,"  are  suggested  the  possibilities  of  a  heroic 
childhood.  TJiere  is  no  moralizing  and  no  generalizing. 
Children  are  not  admonished  to  be  brave  like  David 
or  conjured  to  imitate  the  example  of  Dora.  The  word 
heroism  is  probably  never  used.  But  the  great  ideal  of 
heroism  presented  in  a  series  of  inspiring  and  appealing 
pictures  captivates  imagination  and  inspires  emulative 
impulses.  For  it  is  literally  true  that 

"We  live  by  admiration,  hope,  and  love, 
And  even  as  these  are  well  and  wisely  placed 
In  dignity  of  being  we  ascend." 

While  the  ideals  of  heroism  and  freedom  have  been 
slowly  dawning  in  the  minds  of  our  little  children,  the 
weeks  have  been  hastening  towards  the  great  festival 
wherein  the  Christian  church  celebrates  every  year  its 
faith  in  that  immortal  life  which  freedom  implies,  and 
the  time  is  approaching  when  this  beautiful  faith  must 
be  presented  in  a  form  appealing  to  childish  imagina- 
tion. Nature  is  showing  us  what  we  should  do  and  how 
we  should  do  it.  For  seeds  are  opening;  through  the 
earth,  tiny  plants  are  pushing  upward  towards  the 
light;  bulbs  are  bursting  into  glorious  blossom;  trees 
are  covering  themselves  with  fresh  leaves;  and  from 
apparently  lifeless  cocoons  are  emerging  the  joyous 
butterflies.  The  seeds  and  the  bulbs  say,  there  was  life 
in  us  that  was  asleep,  but  now  it  is  waking  up.  The 
trees  say,  we  too  went  to  sleep  last  fall,  but  we  are 
waking  up  now  more  beautiful  than  ever.  The  butter- 
flies say,  we  went  to  sleep  creeping  things  and  are  wak- 
ing up  flying  things.  All  things  are  saying,  life  sleeps 
and  wakes  from  sleep;  and  when  it  wakes  from  sleep,  it 


192  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

is  more  beautiful  than  when  it  went  to  sleep.  And  the 
kindergartner  tells  her  children  that,  though  life 
sometimes  sleeps,  it  always  wakes  up  again  and  wakes 
up  more  beautiful  than  before,  and  that  soon  Easter 
Sunday  will  be  here,  and  they  will  go  to  church  to  thank 
the  Heavenly  Father  for  a  life  that  goes  on  forever,  and 
forever  becomes  more  beautiful. 

It  is  hoped  that  our  readers  will  not  need  to  be 
assured  that  the  thoughts  compacted  into  the  fore- 
going brief  sentences  are  very  slowly  and  gradually 
suggested  to  our  little  children.  Preparation  of  the 
mind  to  receive  their  suggestion  was  begun  in  the  early 
fall  when,  during  excursions  into  nature,  the  children 
collected  cocoons,  and  if  possible  caterpillars  spinning 
cocoons,  and  were  helped  to  feel  how  life  was  going  to 
sleep.  During  the  fall  they  also  put  away  in  a  safe 
place  the  bulbs  which  they  were  told  would  burst  and 
blossom  in  the  spring.  From  time  to  time  during  the 
winter  they  have  looked  at  the  cocoons,  held  them,  felt 
their  stillness,  and  wondered  if  butterflies  would  ever 
wake  up  in  them.  It  often  happens  that  one  or  more 
butterflies  do  come  out  precisely  during  Easter  week. 
During  this  same  week  the  bulbs  burst  into  life;  seeds 
planted  by  the  children  begin  to  germinate;  and  pussy 
willows  bring  a  message  that  spring  has  really  begun, 
not  only  in  the  kindergarten,  but  in  the  great  out-of- 
doors.  Finally,  on  the  last  school  day  before  Easter 
Sunday  the  kindergarten  should  be  gay  with  crocuses 
and  daffodils,  hyacinths  and  tulips. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  chiefly  the  suggestions 
of  the  springtime.  The  secret  of  the  kindergarten, 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  193 

however,  is  its  method  of  inciting  response  to  selected 
suggestions,  and  as  our  readers  should  now  know,  this 
open  secret  is,  Let  the  child  himself  become  the  ob- 
ject to  whose  suggestion  you  wish  him  to  respond.  If 
therefore  seeds  and  flowers,  chrysalids  and  butterflies 
are  to  speak  to  the  hearts  of  our  children,  then  children 
must  themselves  be  seed  planted  in  the  ground,  plants 
springing  into  life,  and  butterflies  joyously  emerging 
from  the  chrysalis  state. 

The  following  extract  from  Pierre  Loti's  Story  of  a 
Child  is  a  perfect  description  of  the  most  thrilling 
experience  of  kindergarten  children  during  the  weeks 
immediately  preceding  Easter. 

"I  will  now  describe  a  game  that  gave  Antoinette 
and  me  the  greatest  pleasure  during  those  two  delicious 
summers. 

"We  pretended  to  be  two  caterpillars,  and  we  would 
creep  along  the  ground  upon  our  stomachs  and  our 
knees  and  hunt  for  leaves  to  eat.  After  having  done 
that  for  some  time,  we  played  that  we  were  very,  very 
sleepy,  and  we  would  lie  down  in  a  corner  under  the 
trees  and  cover  our  heads  with  our  white  aprons  —  we 
had  become  cocoons.  We  remained  in  this  condition 
for  some  time,  and  so  thoroughly  did  we  enter  into  the 
role  of  insects  in  a  state  of  metamorphosis,  that  anyone 
listening  would  have  heard  pass  between  us,  in  a  tone 
of  the  utmost  seriousness,  conversations  of  this  nature: 

"  *  Do  you  think  that  you  will  soon  be  able  to  fly? ' 

'"Oh,  yes!  I'll  be  flying  very  soon.  I  feel  them 
growing  in  my  shoulders  now  .  .  .  they'll  soon  un- 
fold.' (They  naturally  referred  to  wings.) 

"Finally  we  would  wake  up,  stretch  ourselves,  and 


194  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

without  saying  anything,  we  conveyed  by  our  manner 
our  astonishment  at  the  great  transformation  in  our 
condition. 

"Then  suddenly  we  began  to  run  lightly  and  very 
nimbly  in  our  tiny  shoes;  in  our  hands  we  held  the 
corners  of  our  pinafores  which  we  waved  as  if  they 
were  wings;  we  ran  and  ran,  and  chased  each  other, 
and  flew  about  making  sharp  and  fantastic  curves  as 
we  went.  We  hastened  from  flower  to  flower  and 
smelled  all  of  them."  l 

"Butterflies,  the  poor  butterflies  that  are  old-fash- 
ioned nowadays  played  a  grand  r61e  in  my  childhood." 
So  comments  the  genial  Frenchman  as  he  reviews  the 
romance  of  his  infant  days.  We  wish  he  might  have 
seen  thousands  of  little  children  in  American  kindergar- 
tens yearly  re-creating  the  game  he  loved  so  well  and 
re-creating  in  their  own  hearts  the  premonition  out  of 
which  springs  its  imperishable  joy. 

When  through  making  themselves  into  seeds  and 
plants,  chrysalids  and  butterflies,  children  have  begun 
to  be  stirred  by  the  mystery  and  joy  of  life,  their  dawn- 
ing feeling  is  clarified  by  song  and  story.  They  sing  of 
the  sleeping  caterpillars  and  of  the  wondrous  change 
that  comes  to  them;  they  sing  of  the  butterflies  lightly 
flitting  from  flower  to  flower;  they  sing  of  the  little 

plant  that 

...  rose  to  see 

What  the  wonderful !  wonderful 
Outside  world  must  be." 

They  listen  to  the  stories  of  Rhrecus,  Picciola,  and 
the  beautiful  parable  of  the  "Caterpillar  and  Butter- 

1  The  Story  of  a  Child,  translated  from  the  French  of  Pierre  Loti, 
by  Caroline  F.  Smith,  pp.  62-63. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  195 

fly."  Last  of  all,  through  simple  and  intimate  talks 
and  with  the  help  of  poems  like  the  "Mountain  and 
the  Squirrel,"  and  "Great,  round,  wonderful,  beautiful 
World,"  there  begins  to  quiver  in  prescient  hearts  a 
feeling  that  the  least  living  thing  is  greater  than  the 
greatest  lifeless  object.1  Then  we  show  the  Mother 
Play  picture  of  the  Church.  The  children  see  the 
people  crowding  towards  the  church  door;  other  people 
already  within  the  church;  the  minister  in  the  pulpit; 
the  organ  and  the  choir.  We  tell  them  that  when  the 
minister  talks  to  the  people  he  tells  them  about  the 
life  that  goes  on  forever;  that  then  the  organ  plays  and 
all  the  people  sing  praises  to  God  for  giving  them  this 
wonderful  life,  and  that  when  they  have  finished  sing- 
ing they  pray  for  help  to  make  life  braver,  better,  and 
more  beautiful.2 

The  importance  of  early  wakening  in  children  rever- 
ence for  the  great  institution  that  reveals  an  altruistic 
God  and  an  immortal  humanity  can  scarcely  be  over- 
estimated. The  religion  of  any  people  is  the  final 
determiner  of  its  national  life.  If  America  has  a  free 
government;  an  industrial  organization  which  is  in- 
creasingly seeking  to  endow  each  individual  with  the 
results  of  collective  endeavor;  a  type  of  family  life 
which  respects  the  rights  of  all  its  members;  and  a 

1  It  has  been  impossible  to  make  a  brief  presentation  without 
somewhat  confusing  the  order  of  poems  and  stories.  So  I  desire  to 
explain  that  some  of  the  stories  mentioned  are  told  not  before  but 
after  Easter. 

1  Parents'  meetings  should  be  held  at  this  time;  the  thoughts 
we  have  been  considering  should  be  talked  over  and  fathers  and 
mothers  urged  not  to  permit  their  children  to  miss  the  rich  experi- 
ence of  Easter  Sunday, 


196  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

system  of  education  which,  from  its  beginning  in  the 
kindergarten  to  its  climax  in  the  university,  aims  to 
capacitate  free  souls  for  freedom,  —  it  is  because  still 
in  her  deepest  heart  America  cherishes  faith  in  a 
liberty-loving  God.  This  is  the  truth  that  makes  us 
free,  and  without  that  perpetual  reaffirmation  by  which 
the  church  keeps  it  alive  in  our  souls,  those  specific 
forms  of  national,  industrial,  and  domestic  life  which 
are  its  approximate  secular  embodiments  would  soon 
vanish  from  the  earth.1 

From  the  convictions  which  inspire  our  Easter  pro- 
gram, let  us  now  return  to  the  self -evolving  life  of  our 
little  kindergarten  community.  Experience  has  shown 
that  on  their  return  to  the  kindergarten,  children  who 
have  been  prepared  for  sympathetic  appreciation  of 
the  great  religious  festival  have  much  to  tell  of  beauti- 
ful churches,  beautiful  flowers,  beautiful  music,  and 
solemn  prayers.  They  have  not  understood  all  the 
words  of  these  prayers,  but  they  have  realized  that  a 
great  common  feeling  was  throbbing  in  many  hearts 
and  a  great  common  thought  stirring  in  many  minds. 
We  give  up  the  first  week  after  Easter  to  a  retrospect 
of  this  inspiring  experience  and  we  deepen  and  clarify 
its  influence  by  singing  Easter  hymns;  looking  again 

1  The  careful  reader  will  have  observed  that  there  has  been  no 
attempt  to  connect  the  Easter  service  with  the  Christian  belief  in 
the  resurrection  of  Jesu.s.  Indeed,  there  has  been  no  mention  of 
death,  but  rather  an  attempt  to  quicken  the  joy  of  immortal  life. 
We  6nd  it  hard  to  believe  that  anyone  would  debar  childhood  from 
this  joy,  but  we  repeat  what  has  already  been  said  that  we  are 
merely  presenting  what  we  conceive  to  be  typical  experiences  and 
their  interpretation,  and  that  we  fully  recognize  that,  in  kinder- 
gartens connected  with  public  schools,  modifications  demanded  by 
the  public  mind  must  be  made  promptly  and  cheerfully. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  197 

at  the  Mother  Play  picture  of  the  Church;  hanging 
upon  the  walls  of  the  kindergarten  a  fine  photograph 
of  some  great  Gothic  cathedral;  noticing  once  more 
nature's  manifold  suggestions  of  reviving  life;  repeat- 
ing the  play  of  the  Butterfly,  and  telling  the  story  of 
the  "Sleeping  Beauty." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  second  week  after  Easter, 
we  go  with  our  children  on  a  walk,  and  we  so  direct 
our  steps  that  we  shall  see  carpenters  building  houses, 
birds  gathering  materials  to  build  nests,  and  men  pre- 
paring garden  beds.  The  suggestion  which  comes  from 
this  threefold  experience  is  preparation  for  the  protec- 
tion and  nurture  of  life. 

The  mother  of  a  happy  little  family  who  often  took 
her  children  for  a  drive  was  for  quite  a  while  perplexed 
by  their  constantly  repeated  question  —  Who  lives  in 
this  house?  At  last  it  occurred  to  her  to  answer  that 
in  each  house  lived  a  father  and  mother  with  their 
children.  Her  own  little  ones  never  tired  of  hearing 
this  answer  over  and  over  again.  It  seemed  to  give 
them  great  joy  to  think  that  the  whole  city  was  full 
of  homes  and  that  in  each  home  lived  a  happy  family. 
It  is  a  feeling  akin  to  this  which  we  aim  to  develop 
in  the  kindergarten  children  during  this  spring  walk. 
Fathers  have  been  to  the  carpenter  and  said,  Build  me 
a  home.  Birds  are  building  homes.  Men  are  spading, 
hoeing,  and  raking  the  ground  to  make  homes  for  the 
flowers. 

The  reaction  of  this  experience  upon  the  children  is 
shown  at  once  in  their  building  exercises.  They  are 
eager  to  build  homes  themselves,  and  as  they  are  now 
using  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Gifts,  they  can  make  very 


198  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

satisfactory  houses.  Their  efforts  to  plan  good  houses 
are  made  more  conscious  by  the  play  and  picture  of 
the  Carpenter,  and  by  little  talks  through  which  they 
are  incited  to  think  what  a  house  needs  in  order  to  be 
a  comfortable  home.  Finally,  as  the  climax  of  their 
home-creating  experience,  they  make  and  furnish  a 
doll  house. 

From  interest  in  human  homes  it  is  easy  to  lead  to 
interest  in  animal  homes  and  thus  develop  the  second 
suggestion  of  our  spring  walk.  We  recall  the  birds 
busily  gathering  materials  to  build  their  little  homes. 
We  bring  out  our  collection  of  nests  and  study  all  the 
different  ways  through  which  the  parent  birds  have 
tried  to  make  them  safe,  cozy,  and  comfortable.  We 
look  again  at  the  Mother  Play  picture  of  the  Bird's 
Nest,  notice  where  different  birds  have  made  their 
homes,  and  ask  ourselves  why  they  chose  these  particu- 
lar localities.  Then  we  study  once  again  the  Pigeon- 
House  picture  and  find  the  homes  of  the  serpent  and 
.the  snail,  the  homes  of  the  sparrow,  the  pigeon  and 
the  titmouse,  the  home  of  the  child,  and  the  church 
which  our  little  children  are  now  ready  to  describe 
as  the  home  men  build  for  God.  Finally,  remembering 
the  little  children  eagerly  questioning  who  lives  here, 
and  here,  and  here,  we  turn  from  the  home  to  the 
family  and  again  search  out  in  Froebel's  suggestive 
picture  air  families  and  water  families,  marsh  families 
and  field  families,  forest  families  and  hive  families.  Is 
it  too  much  to  believe  that,  as  the  result  of  all  these 
concrete  experiences,  the  world  begins  to  seem  to  our 
little  children  like  one  great  home  sheltering  many 
small  homes,  and  that  in  tender  and  susceptible  souls 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  199 

is  quickened  the  first  far-off  surmise  of  the  Father's 
house  of  many  mansions?  l 

The  third  incitement  which  came  to  our  children 
on  their  memorable  spring  walk  was  that  of  garden- 
making.  No  reader  who  has  learned  the  secret  which 
our  entire  report  has  been  trying  to  tell  will  need  to 
be  assured  that  in  response  to  this  incitement  garden 
games  are  developed,  actual  gardens  made,  beautiful 
flowers  of  all  kinds  brought  to  the  kindergarten,  the 
brightly  colored  picture  of  a  garden  hung  upon  the 
kindergarten  wall,  glad  songs  of  growing  and  blossom- 
ing plants  learned,  pictures  of  flowers  drawn  and 
painted,  and  stories  told  which  suggest  different  aspects 
of  man's  relationship  to  the  floral  world.2 

The  great  values  of  the  garden  as  one  of  the  educa- 
tional instrumentalities  of  the  kindergarten  are  that  it 
affords  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  nurturing  activity 
and  responds  to  nurture  with  quick  and  rich  reward. 
Children  learn  that  unless  they  give  their  gardens 
constant  care  the  plants  wither  and  die.  The  earth 
must  not  be  allowed  to  grow  hard;  the  plants  must  be 
regularly  watered;  they  must  be  protected  from  undue 
heat  and  cold,  from  destructive  insects,  and  from 
crowding  weeds.  When  carefully  watered  and  lovingly 
tended,  they  reward  the  little  gardener  with  ever  fresh 
revelations  of  the  mystery  of  development  and  the 
beauty  of  life.  The  springtime  calls  to  the  child, 

1  It  is  to  be  understood  that  all  this  time  the  games  of  the  Car- 
penter, the  Pigeon-House,  the  Bird's  Nest,  and  the  Family  are  being 
actually  played. 

2  Actual  gardens  are  not  yet  as  common  as  we  wish  they  were. 
But  garden  games,  sand-table  gardens,  and  the  planting  of  seed  in 
flower  pots  are  very  general. 


200  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

Rejoice  in  an  abiding  and  beautiful  life.  The  great 
religious  festival  inclines  his  heart  to  love  the  great 
Giver  and  Sustainer  of  life.  His  own  little  garden  says 
to  him :  Be  like  your  Heavenly  Father  and  care  for  one 
tiny  corner  of  the  world  as  he  cares  for  the  whole 
world  and  for  all  the  worlds. 

The  end  of  the  kindergarten  year  is  approaching, 
and  the  time  has  come  for  the  children  to  make  their 
great  excursion  to  a  farmyard.  This  excursion  is  a 
climax  of  the  many  experiences  through  which  ever 
since  the  beginning  of  the  year  the  kindergarten  has 
striven  to  awaken  in  its  children  some  sense  of  them- 
selves as  nurtured  beings  and  some  impulse  to  share 
the  high  privilege  of  nurture.  The  following  account 
of  one  such  excursion  comes  from  a  Pittsburgh  kinder- 
garten.1 

"Our  excursion  to  a  farm  was  one  of  the  most  de- 
lightful we  have  ever  made. 

"  We  went  forty  strong,  with  two  of  the  mothers  to 
help  us  get  on  and  off  the  street-cars.  Two  other 
kindergartens  met  us  at  the  farm,  so  there  were  alto- 
gether about  a  hundred  children. 

"The  farm  stood  on  a  very  high  hill  overlooking  the 
river,  which  was  spanned  by  many  bridges.  I  felt  the 
sense  of  freedom  that  comes  to  one  on  the  heights, 
and  I  was  glad  to  notice  that  the  children  felt  it  as  I 
did.  Said  one  child:  'See  the  butterflies,  how  much 
room  they  have  to  fly.'  'Yes,'  said  another,  'lots  of 

1  This  account  was  sent  me  by  Miss  Jessica  Childs,  director  of  the 
kindergarten  in  the  Pittsburgh  College  for  Kindergartners.  I  have 
omitted  an  occasional  phrase  or  sentence. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  201 

room  and  lots  of  flowers.'  Then  came  a  chorus  — 
'Lots  of  trees;  lots  of  chickens;  lots  of  children;  lots 
of  wind.' 

"Our  approach  to  the  farm  lay  through  a  lane;  the 
pasture  lots  on  either  side.  The  children  greeted  with 
delight  a  mare  with  her  young  colt.  *  Where  is  the  father 
horse,'  cried  they,  —  and  soon  discovered  him  in  a 
neighboring  field. 

"A  turn  in  the  lane  brought  the  farmhouse  into 
view.  A  barking  dog  heralded  our  approach. 

"'The  farmer's  dog!  he's  watching  the  farmer's 
house,'  cried  one  of  the  children. 

"The  stable  held  greater  revelations,  for  here  we  saw 
two  cows,  each  with  her  baby,  as  the  children  said. 

"The  ' babies '  were  very  gentle  and  playful,  reaching 
out  inquisitive  noses  for  the  children  to  pat. 

"There  was  a  trough  in  the  barnyard,  and  on  the 
top  of  the  barn  a  pigeon  house. 

"While  we  were  looking  for  the  pigeons,  one  of  the 
children  ran  to  me,  saying:  'I  saw  a  little  bird  fly  in 
that  hole  right  under  the  roof.  He  must  have  a  nest 
there.'  Just  then  the  bird  flew  out,  'to  get  some  worms' 
the  children  said. 

"The  chicken-house  was  the  home  of  two  thousand 
small  chickens,  and  the  children's  delight  knew  no 
bounds  when  the  farmer  allowed  them  to  feed  the 
chicks.  In  the  chicken-yard  outside  were  roosters, 
hens,  and  geese. 

"In  the  garden  were  beds  of  pansies  and  phlox. 
'Come,  see  the  bumblebee,'  called  one  of  the  children, 
while  the  others  were  content  in  noticing  the  colors 
of  the  flowers  and  burying  their  faces  in  them. 


202  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

"Noontime  came  all  too  soon,  and  regretfully  we 
turned  our  faces  homeward.  The  sun  was  very  bright 
and  the  children  noticed  the  shadows.  'Now  we  can 
make  some  shadow-rabbits,'  said  one  child;  while  an- 
other cried :  '  Yes,  and  mine  is  going  all  the  way  home 
with  me;  he  can  go  as  fast  as  I  can.' 

"Seeing  some  mules  hitched  to  a  wagon  which  was 
being  filled  with  bricks,  one  of  the  children  said:  'See 
how  still  they  stand;  they  have  to  be  patient  and  wait 
just  as  we  do.'  'Yes,'  answered  another,  'but  they  can 
run  and  so  can  we.'  There  followed  a  series  of  remarks 
in  which  the  children  noted  similarities  and  dissimilari- 
ties, between  themselves  and  the  animals. 

' '  We  can  jump  and  the  rabbit  can  jump.'  '  A  cater- 
pillar can  only  crawl,  but  a  butterfly  has  wings  to  fly. 
Why  can't  we  fly?  —  we're  bigger  than  butterflies.' 

"We  reached  the  kindergarten  tired,  hungry,  and 
happy,  and  sat  down  to  rest  for  a  few  minutes  while 
the  piano  played  softly. 

"After  we  had  sung  good-bye,  I  said,  'Tell  me  what 
you  are  going  to  do  the  minute  you  get  home?' 

"'Tell  mother  all  about  it,'  said  every  one  of  the 
children." 

For  many  days  after  this  thrilling  experience  its 
influence  was  clearly  discernible  in  the  free  creations 
of  the  children.1  "Clay,  paper,  paints,  and  crayon," 

1  On  the  third  day  after  this  excursion  the  director  told  the  chil- 
dren that  any  one  who  had  a  pet  animal  might  bring  it  to  the  kinder- 
garten the  next  morning.  I  give  her  own  account  of  the  response. 
"  When  my  ears  were  greeted  with  '  maa-maa'  as  I  neared  the  kinder- 
garten I  knew  the  pets  had  come.  I  began  to  wonder  whether  I  had 
been  rash  in  inviting  them  all  at  once.  We  bad  two  doves;  three 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  203 

writes  the  director,  "seemed  to  hold  animals  waiting 
to  be  released.  In  the  free  cutting  were  reproduced 
the  farmer's  house,  the  pigeon-house,  the  dog-house, 
then  the  dog  himself  and  many  little  chickens.  When 
paints  and  paint  brushes  were  distributed,  the  children 
cried  with  one  voice:  'Let's  paint  a  barnyard.'  Then 
they  all  made  fences  with  gates  and  afterwards  painted 
animals  inside.1 

kittens;  a  rabbit,  a  parrot,  and  a  goat.  The  latter  we  thought  it 
best  to  tie  in  the  yard  and  we  spent  our  recess  admiring  him.  He 
was  very  tame  and  sat  up  and  begged  for  food.  The  children  shared 
their  lunch  with  him.  The  kittens  slept  in  their  basket  after  they 
had  been  given  some  milk;  the  doves  cooed  in  their  cage,  while  the 
parrot  enlivened  the  morning  with  shouts  of  'Polly  wants  a  cracker.' 
The  rabbit  has  been  presented  to  the  kindergarten." 

1  Miss  Child's  account  of  a  conversation  on  the  Mother  Play 
picture  of  the  Two  Gates  will  explain  why  the  children  began  by 
painting  fences  with  gates :  — 

We  looked  at  the  picture  of  the  Garden  Gate  and  the  following 
points  were  brought  out  in  the  discussion  of  its  details:  The  gate  was 
closed  to  keep  out  chickens  and  dogs.  The  garden  belonged  to  the 
two  children  and  they  had  taken  good  care  of  it.  The  little  girl  was 
putting  the  flower  inside  the  fence  so  that  it  would  n't  get  broken. 
It  was  a  beautiful  garden.  The  fountain  helped  to  make  it  beautiful 
and  cool. 

"I  know  what  the  fountain  says,"  cried  one  child:  'Drip  drop, 
drip  drop.' " 

"There  must  be  fishes  in  it,"  said  another. 

"The  birds  fly  into  the  garden  to  get  a  drink." 

"The  butterflies  and  the  bees  come  in  right  over  the  fence." 

Next  we  looked  at  the  picture  of  the  Farmyard.  Here  is  &  gate, 
too,  but  it  is  open. 

"Johnny  will  get  it  shut  in  time." 

"There  are  no  flowers  here,  but  there  are  animals  here." 

"Should  they  be  here?" 

"Yes:  this  is  the  place  for  them." 

"Were  the  flowers  where  they  belonged?" 

"Are  the  animals  where  they  belong?" 

"Do  they  each  need  to  be  taken  care  of?" 


204  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

"A  modeling  exercise  contributed  to  the  reactions 
from  the  barnyard,  horses,  pigs,  cows,  chickens,  a 
pond  with  ducks  swimming,  a  trough,  a  pump,  and 
finally  a  small  boy  who  the  children  said  was  'Johnny 
shut  the  gate.'  In  free  drawing  many  barnyard  ani- 
mals were  reproduced.  The  drawings  of  one  child 
were  especially  interesting  because  they  showed  how 
greatly  he  had  been  impressed  with  the  characteristic 
peculiarity  of  each  animal.  The  ram  drawn  by  this 
little  boy  had  very  large  spiral  horns  worked  out  in 
detail,  while  the  rest  of  the  body  was  merely  an  indefi- 
nite mass  with  four  lines  for  legs.  The  sheep  was 
drawn  with  a  greatly  exaggerated  covering  of  wool; 
while  the  cow  was  an  almost  exact  duplicate  of  the 
sheep  hi  general  contour,  but  was  differentiated  by  the 
absence  of  wool  and  the  addition  of  a  very  large  udder." 

Then  followed  these  comments:  — 

"The  mother  cow  takes  care  of  the  baby  calf." 

"The  mother  horse  takes  care  of  the  baby  colt." 

"The  mother  hen  takes  care  of  the  chickens." 

"The  farmer  takes  care  of  them  all." 

"Do  mother  plants  have  anything  to  take  care  of?"  said  I. 

"The  seed  babies,"  said  one  child. 

"How  does  she  do  it?" 

Then  the  children  told  me  over  again  what  we  had  discovered 
when  we  were  studying  seeds  —  how  they  were  wrapped  up  to  keep 
them  dry  and  warm,  etc.,  etc. 

'Mother  takes  care  of  our  baby,"  said  one  child. 

'What  have  we  to  take  care  of?"  I  asked. 

'Our  gardens,"  said  one. 

'Our  bunny,"  cried  another. 

'Ourselves,"  said  Elizabeth,  who  is  possessed  of  a  restive  spirit 
and  to  whom  self-control  has  meant  a  struggle. 

Thus  ended  our  discussion,  and  I  felt  that  the  little  nurtured 
beings  who  came  to  us  in  the  fall  had  felt  the  quickening  touch  of  the 
year's  experiences  and  were  themselves  becoming  nurturers. 


THE  KINDERGAKTEN  205 

"The  influence  of  the  farmyard  upon  the  minds  of 
the  kindergarten  children  was  shown  not  only  in  their 
free  creations,  but  in  the  stories  they  asked  to  have 
retold  and  the  plays  and  songs  selected  for  repetition. 
The  stories  of  "Ludwig  and  Marleen"  and  "Thum- 
belina"  were  called  for,  the  former  being  described  as 
the  story  of  the  boy  who  bound  up  the  foot  of  the  fox, 
and  the  latter,  the  story  of  the  little  girl  who  took  a 
thorn  out  of  the  bird's  foot.  Another  story  chosen  was 
"Peter,  Paul,  and  Espen,"  which  pictures  Nature  re- 
vealing herself  as  ally  to  the  man  whose  ear  is  open  to 
her  call.  Finally,  the  children  wanted  to  hear  again 
about  the  little  Christ-Baby  cradled  in  the  hay.  On 
the  circle  the  games  of  the  Farmer  and  Grass-mowing, 
learned  in  the  fall,  were  revived  and  the  games  of  the 
Barnyard  and  Garden  played  daily  with  increasing 
zest.  The  Light-Songs  and  the  song  of  the  Church 
were  called  for,  as  was  also  the  song  of  the  Christ- 
Baby,  which  had  not  been  sung  since  February.  After 
singing  this  last  song,  one  of  the  children  ran  across 
the  room  to  the  Madonna  picture,  saying:  'See  the 
Christ-Baby  in  his  mother's  arms! '  "  1 

No  kindergartner  who  follows  with  discerning  sym- 
pathy the  unfolding  life  of  her  little  community  can 
doubt  that  towards  the  end  of  the  year  a  total  series 
of  experiences  converges  in  the  dawning  ideal  of  nur- 
ture. The  children  do  really  begin  to  know  themselves 
as  nurtured  beings.  They  do  really  begin  to  have 
prescient  faith  in  a  nurturing  God  and  joy  hi  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  abiding  and  progressive  life.  It  has 
been  with  the  hope  that  this  convergence  of  experience 
1  Miss  Child's  Report. 


206  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

might  suggest  itself  through  the  reactions  of  the  chil- 
dren in  an  actual  kindergarten  upon  their  last  excur- 
sion that  we  have  permitted  ourselves  to  relate  what 
may  seem  trivial  and  uninteresting  details.  Will  our 
readers  kindly  remember  that  little  children  can  do 
only  little  things  and  give  slight  intimations  of  the 
trend  of  their  feeling  and  thought. 

The  kindergarten  has  been  defined  as  an  institution 
which  from  the  plays  of  childhood  breaks  a  path 
of  approach  toward  all  human  values.  The  aim  of  our 
discussion  of  the  program  up  to  its  present  point  has 
been  to  suggest  the  approaches  toward  religion,  ethics, 
language,  literature,  music,  the  dance,  and  the  drama. 
It  is  believed  that  the  approaches  toward  religion  and 
ethics  have  been  indicated  in  sufficient  detail  to  make 
comment  unnecessary  and  that  a  brief  statement  will 
suffice  to  clarify  the  evolution  of  the  remaining  values. 

It  is  quite  generally  recognized  by  intelligent  pri- 
mary teachers  that  children  promoted  from  the  kinder- 
garten have  both  larger  and  more  precise  vocabularies 
than  children  entering  school  directly  from  the  home. 
It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  were  this  not  so,  because 
in  the  kindergarten  words  are  learned  in  connection 
with  the  acts,  objects,  qualities,  and  relations  to  which 
they  refer.  Every  representative  game  defines  a  num- 
ber of  verbs  by  acting  them  and  a  number  of  ob- 
jects by  showing  their  use.  In  good  kindergartens  the 
actual  objects  whose  use  is  represented  are  shown 
to  the  children  and  many  of  them  later  made  by  the 
children.  When  it  is  impossible  to  show  the  actual 
object,  a  picture  takes  its  place.  Seeing,  using,  and 
making  objects,  children  become  familiar  with  their 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  207 

qualities,  and  therefore  learn  readily  the  adjectives 
which  name  these  qualities. 

For  many  years  kindergarten  children  enriched  and 
clarified  their  vocabularies,  but  did  not  learn  to  ex- 
press themselves  in  complete  sentences.  Even  to-day 
their  speech  is  defective  in  this  respect.  But  kinder- 
gartners  are  becoming  alive  to  the  importance  of  being 
precise  and  concise  in  their  own  speech,  and  as  they 
learn  to  use  words  few  and  fit,  children  learn  to  form 
complete  sentences.  It  is  because  the  speech  of  adults 
is  prolix,  ambiguous,  and  circumlocutory  that  children 
are  arrested  in  the  use  of  single  words.  In  the  tumult  of 
sound  that  assails  their  ears  they  can  distinguish  only 
a  few  clear  meanings. 

In  addition  to  the  development  of  language  through 
representative  and  creative  exercises  must  be  men- 
tioned the  influence  upon  speech  of  the  stories  to 
which  the  children  listen  and  the  poems  they  learn. 
Stories  are  carefully  selected  with  reference  both  to 
their  content  and  their  literary  form.  The  vexation  of 
spirit  shown  by  children,  when  changes  are  made  either 
in  the  words  of  a  story  or  in  the  order  of  its  events,  is 
teaching  kindergartners  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
great  story-tellers  of  primitive  ages.  The  constant 
repetition  of  stories  in  the  same  fitly  chosen  words 
amplifies  and  clarifies  the  speech  of  eager  auditors. 
Poems  committed  to  memory  enhance  still  further 
the  power  of  linguistic  expression.  It  is  true  that  we  do 
not  as  yet  possess  many  of  the  poems  which  the  life  of 
the  kindergarten  demands  for  its  self-expression.  We 
cannot  say  to  ourselves,  Go  to:  we  will  make  a  book 
of  songs  and  sonnets.  We  cannot  at  will  make  ourselves 


208  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

poets,  and  we  await  the  genius  who  shall  adequately 
translate  the  heart  of  things  to  the  heart  of  childhood. 
There  has,  however,  been  a  cheering  advance  in  the 
simplicity  and  beauty  of  our  songs,  and  when  we  con- 
trast the  present  poetic  wealth  of  the  kindergarten 
with  the  dearth  of  pioneer  days  we  are  filled  with  hope 
for  the  future. 

For  many  years  large  numbers  of  kindergartners 
have  given  much  time  to  the  study  of  Homer,  Dante, 
Shakespeare,  and  Goethe,  the  Bible,  and  the  Greek 
Tragedians.  Through  this  study  they  have  learned  to 
feel  the  charm  of  literary  expression  and  to  see  with 
their  own  eyes  how  literature  interprets  the  meanings 
of  nature  and  of  human  life.  They  have  also  learned 
to  distinguish  between  local  and  temporal  literature 
and  world  literature.  They  have  come  to  realize  that 
there  is  a  world  literature  for  childhood  as  well  as  for 
maturity  and  have  been  incited  to  study  fairy  tales, 
primitive  myths,  and  national  and  religious  legends. 
The  practical  result  has  been  a  greatly  increased  abil- 
ity to  recognize  what  types  of  character  and  situ- 
ation should  be  presented  to  little  children  and  an 
approximate  attainment  of  that  distinction  of  speech 
which  proceeds  from  distinction  of  thought.  There- 
fore, the  stories  now  told  in  large  numbers  of  kin- 
dergartens do  really  perform  the  several  functions  of 
literature  by  helping  to  create  forcible,  delicate,  and 
discriminating  speech;  by  defining  those  ranges  of 
thought  and  feeling  which  are  accessible  to  childish 
imagination;  by  suggesting  the  evolution  of  action  out 
of  feeling  and  thought,  and  by  illustrating  the  deeds 
which  may  and  may  not  be  done. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  209 

Passing  from  the  values  of  language  and  literature 
to  that  of  music,  it  must  be  regretfully  confessed  that 
the  kindergarten  is  very  far  from  realizing  its  own 
musical  ideal.  As  Froebel  conceived  the  kindergarten 
game  it  was  a  motor  expression  translating  itself  into 
thought  by  words  and  into  feeling  by  music.  In  the 
actual  kindergarten,  words,  melodies,  and  motor  expres- 
sion often  attack  each  other  instead  of  supporting  each 
other.  Furthermore,  much  of  our  music  is  poor;  much 
of  it  is  not  adapted  to  children.  In  too  many  kinder- 
gartens this  defective  music  is  badly  played  and 
badly  sung.  We  confess  our  faults  and  our  sins  are  ever 
before  us.  But  once  again  we  cannot  at  will  make  our- 
selves musicians  and  musical  composers.  We  can  only 
continue  to  announce  our  ideal  until  the  announce- 
ment shall  call  forth  a  musical  genius  who  will  make  it 
possible  for  us  to  do  that  which  we  desire.  The  neces- 
sity of  the  moment  is  that  graduate  kindergartners 
should  study  music,  as  many  of  them  have  already 
studied  literature,  and  should  learn  to  select  from  the 
constantly  accumulating  store  of  songs  and  games 
those  having  musical  value.  The  elimination  of  music 
which  is  tinged  with  mawkish  emotion  is  greatly  to  be 
desired.  In  telling  stories  we  have  learned  to  tell  what 
heroes  do  and  to  avoid  dissertations  on  how  they  feel 
and  what  they  think.  Our  poems  of  nature  and  human 
life  portray  deeds  and  events.  Our  hymns  are  elimi- 
nating exhortations  to  love  God,  and  inspiring  love 
by  suggesting  his  character  through  appealing  images. 
When  children  look  at  the  sun  they  do  not  need  to  be 
told  that  it  is  bright,  and  when  they  feel  its  genial  rays 
they  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  it  is  warm.  Still  less 


210  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

do  they  require  to  be  told  that  they  ought  to  like  light 
and  warmth.  So  whether  we  wish  to  call  forth  in  chil- 
dren response  to  nature,  man,  or  God,  our  one  princi- 
ple is  to  portray  deeds  and  let  feelings  take  care  of 
themselves.  The  music  interpretive  of  such  songs  and 
games  should  be  as  joyous  as  childhood,  as  noble  as 
the  ideal,  as  simple  as  the  images  under  which  childhood 
apprehends  the  ideal.  Above  all  it  should  be  inspired 
by  ethical  purity  and  should  avoid  both  sensuous  tick' 
ling  of  the  nerves  and  "the  railroad  gallop  style  which 
makes  the  nerves  vibrate  with  undue  excitement." 

The  ideal  of  Froebel  with  regard  to  the  evolution  of 
values  will  not  be  realized  in  music  until,  in  addition  to 
supplying  good  melodies,  we  help  children  to  discrimi- 
nate rhythms  and  tones  and  to  use  them  creatively. 
In  the  discrimination  and  creative  use  of  rhythms  a 
fair  beginning  has  been  made,  but  practically  nothing 
has  as  yet  been  achieved  in  the  discrimination  and 
creative  use  of  tones. 

The  attentive  reader  of  this  report  will  have  ob- 
served that  the  heart-centre  of  all  the  activities  thus 
far  described  is  the  kindergarten  game,  and  will  also 
have  recognized  that  this  game  approaches  the  value 
of  art  as  embodied  in  the  forms  of  the  dance  and  the 
drama.  The  characteristic  feature  of  the  kindergarten 
game  is  that  it  translates  into  symbolic  motor  expres- 
sion the  valid  and  typical  experiences  of  childhood  in 
all  countries  and  in  all  ages,  and  therefore  tends  to 
develop  normal  and  joyous  emotions. 

Recent  studies  of  folk-dances  have  indirectly  illumi- 
nated kindergarten  games.  "In  these  dances,"  writes 
Dr.  Gulick,  "any  or  all  of  the  chief  events  of  human 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  211 

experience  were  told  not  merely  in  words,  but  were 
accompanied  by  gesture  and  bodily  expression."1  They 
were  acted  stories  of  sowing  and  reaping,  of  war  and 
the  chase,  of  love  and  marriage,  of  worship  and  sacri- 
fice. Through  this  motor  rehearsal  of  typical  experience 
the  experience  itself  was  assimilated  and  intensified. 
Rhythmic  representation  of  sowing,  reaping,  and 
weaving  liberated  the  livelier  emotions  incidental  to 
these  economic  activities;  hunters  and  warriors  grew 
acquainted  with  themselves  through  dramatizing  their 
deeds;  the  dance  portraying  pursuit  of  the  maid,  and 
symbolically  suggesting  her  coy  retreats  and  veiled 
advances,  was  the  first  recital  of  the  old  love  story  told 
anew  in  the  novel  of  yesterday;  and  finally,  genuflec- 
tion and  bodily  prostration  quickened  the  sentiment 
of  worship,  and  religious  legend  translated  into  act 
reacted  to  enliven  the  faith  of  the  actors.  So,  for  the 
kindergarten  child  to  fly  is  to  begin  to  feel  free;  to 
march  is  to  begin  to  feel  self -restraining;  to  cuddle  a 
doll  is  to  get  ready  to  cuddle  a  baby;  and  to  bend  the 
knees  and  fold  the  hands  is  to  quicken  the  spirit  of 
reverence  and  devotion.  The  kindergarten  game  agrees 
with  the  folk-dance  in  developing  thinking  and  feeling 
out  of  motor  activity.  It  differs  from  the  folk-dance 
by  declining  to  rehearse  adult  experience  in  adult 
form.  It  is  a  story  acted,  told,  and  sung  of  the  typical 
experiences  of  childhood  itself  and  of  adult  experience 
as  reflected  in  the  child  mind.2 

It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that  the  final  aim 

1  Dr.  Luther  Halsey  Gulick,  Folk  and  National  Dances,  p.  10. 
1  The  value  of  the  folk-dance  for  the  youth  of  the  country  can 
scarcely  be  overstated. 


212  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  the  kindergarten  is  to  help  children  to  create  a 
miniature  world  and  through  this  creation  to  interpret 
the  larger  world  in  which  they  find  themselves.  We 
have  seen  that  the  kindergarten  games  create  in  imag- 
ination a  picture  of  institutional  ideals,  call  forth  an 
emotional  response  to  these  ideals,  and  portray  those 
phenomena  of  nature  which  analogically  interpret 
human  affections  and  aspirations.  We  are  now  to  see 
that  the  plays  with  the  kindergarten  gifts  correspond 
with  those  forms  of  human  activity  whose  aims  are 
the  transformation  of  nature  through  the  industries, 
the  transfiguration  of  nature  through  the  fine  arts, 
and  the  theoretic  interpretation  of  nature  through 
mathematics  and  science. 

The  traditional  method  of  using  the  kindergarten 
gifts  calls  for  the  three  kinds  of  exercises  formerly 
described  as  making  forms  of  life,  beauty,  and  know- 
ledge. Translating  these  obsolescent  names  into  con- 
temporary terminology,  we  may  say  that  the  tradi- 
tional method  calls  for  construction,  representation, 
design,  and  the  discovery  of  mathematical  relations 
and  implications.  Under  the  term  constructive  activi- 
ties we  include  exercises  with  the  building  gifts,  to- 
gether with  peas-work  and  paper,  clay,  and  sand 
modeling  in  so  far  as  their  products  are  objects  of 
utility.1  Under  the  term  representation  we  include 
all  exercises  wherein  one  object  stands  for  another  in 
virtue  of  an  analogical  tie,  and  all  picture-making, 
whether  with  masses,  lines,  or  points. 

1  As  technical  activities,  sewing  and  weaving  may  also  be  included 
under  this  head.  In  the  kindergarten,  however,  the  emphasis  of  these 
occupations  is  upon  representation  and  design. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  S13 

CONSTRUCTIVE   EXERCISES 

The  nearer  agreements  among  kindergartners  relate 
to  exercises  with  the  building  gifts;  hence  no  extended 
description  of  our  play  with  these  gifts  is  necessary. 
In  common  with  other  kindergartners  we  encourage 
the  making  and  grouping  of  furniture  for  bedchambers, 
dining-rooms,  kitchens,  laundries,  schoolrooms,  and 
kindergartens;  the  construction  of  objects  belonging 
to  the  yard  or  farm;  the  building  of  dwelling-houses, 
stores,  factories,  libraries,  art  galleries,  churches,  and 
public  edifices  of  all  kinds;  the  erection  of  bridges  and 
the  grouping  of  buildings  into  villages  and  cities.  We 
incite  the  children  to  discover  for  themselves  how  to 
make  all  these  objects.  With  the  Third  and  Fourth 
Gifts  we  encourage  the  transformation  of  one  object 
into  another.  With  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Gifts,  while  not 
excluding  transformation,  we  place  our  emphasis  upon 
the  improvement  of  the  single  object.  We  avoid  dicta- 
tion, and  use  chiefly  the  methods  of  imitation  and  sug- 
gestion. We  incite  children  to  pile  blocks  in  order  that 
their  various  possibilities  may  be  discovered  and  their 
architectural  values  discerned.  Finally,  we  encourage 
the  discovery  and  repetition  of  architectural  units  of 
design. 

It  is  superfluous  to  do  more  than  suggest  the  fact 
that  building  exercises  offer  many  connections  with 
games,  stories,  and  pictures,  and  that  we  avail  our- 
selves of  these  natural  connections  in  the  organization 
of  our  program. 

With  regard  to  other  forms  of  constructive  activity, 
it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  peas-work  is  almost  exclu- 
sively restricted  to  the  development  of  simple  objects 


214  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

from  the  linear  outlines  of  plane  and  solid  geometric 
forms;  that  exercises  with  sand  and  clay  conform  to 
the  general  practice;  that  in  paper  modeling  we  place 
our  emphasis  upon  processes,  rather  than  products, 
and  that  our  aim  is  to  encourage  original  invention  and 
transformation.  For  older  children  we  approve  of  the 
exercises  suggested  by  Froebel,  which,  in  addition  to 
their  constructive  value,  are  concrete  applications  of 
mathematics. 

REPRESENTATION 

Symbolic  representation  is  adapted  only  to  the 
younger  children  in  the  kindergarten,  and  we  deplore 
that  extension  of  the  analogizing  act  which  so  often 
produces  arrest  of  development.  In  picture-making 
our  effort  is  to  avoid  monotonous  repetition  of  the 
same  forms  with  different  media  of  expression,  and  in 
the  use  of  any  particular  medium  to  encourage  repre- 
sentation of  the  objects  to  which  it  is  best  adapted. 
For  example,  we  limit  our  tablet  pictures  almost 
entirely  to  houses,  furniture,  bridges,  boats,  engines, 
and  different  kinds  of  vehicles;  we  confine  stick  exer- 
cises to  the  representation  of  direction  and  to  the  out- 
lines of  rectilinear  objects;  and  our  ring  pictures  are 
chiefly  waves,  vines,  leaves,  flowers,  and  fruits.  We 
recognize  that  the  richest  media  of  representation  are 
paper,  crayons,  and  paint,  but  we  believe  that  the  very 
limitations  of  such  materials  as  tablets,  slats,  sticks, 
rings,  and  lentils,  concentrate  attention  upon  facts 
which  are  ignored  in  the  use  of  more  plastic  instru- 
mentalities and  tend  to  develop  that  conscious  power 
which  is  always  achieved  through  restraint. 

It  is  manifest  that  both  constructive  and  representa- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  215 

tive  exercises  point  towards  the  great  value  of  industry, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  remind  ourselves  that  the 
obvious  contribution  of  the  kindergarten  to  this  par- 
ticular value  was  one  of  the  chief  arguments  urged 
for  its  introduction  into  the  public  school  system.  In 
his  monograph  entitled  Early  History  of  the  Kinder- 
garten in  St.  Louis,  Dr.  Harris  writes  as  follows :  — 

"If  the  school  is  to  prepare  especially  for  the  arts 
and  trades,  it  is  the  kindergarten  which  is  to  accom- 
plish the  object,  for  the  training  of  the  muscles,  if  it  is 
to  be  a  training  for  special  skill  in  manipulation,  must 
be  begun  in  early  youth.  As  age  advances,  it  becomes 
more  difficult  to  acquire  new  phases  of  manual  dex- 
terity. Two  weeks'  practice  of  holding  objects  in  his 
right  hand  will  make  the  infant  in  his  first  year  right- 
handed  for  life.  The  muscles  yet  in  a  pulpy  consistency 
are  very  easily  set  in  any  fixed  direction.  The  child 
trained  for  one  year  in  Froebel's  gifts  and  occupations 
will  acquire  a  skillful  use  of  his  hand  and  the  habit  of 
accurate  measurement  of  the  eye,  which  will  be  his 
possession  for  life. 

"Not  only  is  this  training  of  great  importance  by 
reason  of  the  fact  that  most  children  must  depend 
largely  upon  manual  skill  for  their  future  livelihood, 
but  from  a  broader  point  of  view,  we  must  value  skill 
as  the  great  potency  which  is  emancipating  the  human 
race  from  drudgery  by  the  aid  of  machinery.  Inven- 
tions will  free  man  from  thraldom  to  time  and  space. 

"By  reason  of  the  fact  already  adverted  to,  that  a 
short  training  of  certain  muscles  of  the  infant  will  be 
followed  by  the  continued  growth  of  the  same  muscles 
through  his  after  life,  it  is  clear  how  it  is  that  the  two 


216  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

years  of  the  child's  life  (his  fifth  and  sixth),  or  even  one 
year,  or  a  half-year  in  the  kindergarten  will  start  into 
development  activities  of  muscle  and  brain  which  will 
secure  deftness  and  delicacy  of  industrial  power  in  all 
after  life.  The  rationale  of  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  use  muscles  already  inured  to  use; 
in  fact  a  much-used  muscle  demands  a  daily  exercise 
as  much  as  the  stomach  demands  food.  But  an  unused 
muscle,  or  the  mere  rudiment  of  a  muscle  that  has 
never  been  used,  gives  pain  on  its  first  exercise.  Its 
contraction  is  accompanied  with  laceration  of  tissue 
and  followed  by  lameness,  or  by  distress  on  using  it 
again.  Hence  it  happens  that  the  body  shrinks  from 
employing  an  unused  muscle,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
demands  the  frequent  exercise  of  muscles  already 
trained  to  use.  Hence,  in  a  thousand  ways  unconscious 
to  ourselves,  we  manage  to  exercise  daily  whatever 
muscles  we  have  already  trained  and  thus  keep  in 
practice  physical  aptitudes  for  skill  in  any  direction." 
As  pointed  out  in  the  passage  cited,  the  kindergarten 
gives  a  general  training  for  industrial  pursuits  rather 
than  a  specific  training  for  particular  industries.  It 
does,  indeed,  introduce  children  to  the  primitive  arts 
of  agriculture,  pottery,  sewing,  and  weaving,  but  its 
direct  contributions  to  the  development  of  industry 
are  an  aroused  interest  in  constructive  activity  and  "a 
skilful  use  of  the  hand  and  the  habit  of  accurate  meas- 
urement of  the  eye."  In  addition  to  this  technical 
training  the  kindergarten  creates  through  its  industrial 
games  a  genuine  reverence  for  the  ideal  immanent  in 
the  great  institution  of  civil  society,  which,  as  pointed 
out  in  the  secpnd  section  of  this  report,  is  "a  more  or 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  217 

Jess  conscious  effort  to  complete  the  desire  for  devel- 
opment in  nature  by  helping  nature  to  fulfill  its  mis- 
sion as  servitor  of  man." 

DESIGN 

There  is  no  divergence  of  opinion  among  kinder- 
gartners  as  to  the  importance  of  approaching  the  great 
value  of  industry  through  wisely  directed  play,  but 
there  is  marked  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  the  relative 
stress  to  be  placed  upon  exercises  pointing  respectively 
towards  the  practical  and  the  fine  arts.  The  most  inter- 
esting fact  of  contemporary  kindergarten  history, 
however,  is  the  very  general  awakening  of  kindergart- 
ners  to  an  appreciation  of  the  fine  arts;  and  the  conse- 
quent fading  away  of  one  line  of  scission  between 
representatives  of  the  Froebelian  institution.  As  a 
result  of  this  awakening  appreciation,  exercises  in 
rhythmic  and  symmetric  arrangement  have  become 
universal  in  kindergartens,  and  very  intelligent  activ- 
ity is  displayed  in  the  creation  of  methods  whose  aim 
is  to  help  children  to  discover  architectural,  plastic, 
graphic,  and  pictorial  possibilities.  Stimuli  of  various 
kinds  are  provided,  experiment  is  encouraged;  social 
cooperation  is  invoked  in  aid  of  individual  effort;  units 
of  design  are  discovered  and  combined;  the  conscious- 
ness of  space-relations  is  developed;  children  are 
encouraged  to  scrutinize  and  improve  the  forms  they 
have  made,  and  —  mirabile  dictu  —  it  is  granted  that 
the  kindergartner  herself  may  take  a  place  among  the 
incitements  of  environment.  With  regard  to  the  use  of 
geometric  elements  in  the  development  of  art  values, 
no  general  consensus  of  opinion  has  been  reached.  The 


218  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

signers  of  this  report,  however,  are  unanimous  in  the 
conviction  that  since  proportion  inheres  in  and  is 
most  simply  created  with  geometric  elements,  practice 
in  the  grouping  and  spacing  of  different  lines  and  in 
the  symmetric  cutting  of  the  various  polygons  is  an 
indispensable  phase  of  the  method  of  initiation  into 
the  arts  of  space.  We  approve  of  the  grouping  and 
spacing  of  concrete  objects  when  children  have  devel- 
oped sufficient  skill  to  draw  or  cut  these  objects  them- 
selves, but  we  think  that  allowing  children  to  arrange 
objects  cut  or  drawn  by  the  kindergartner  betrays 
them  into  expecting  too  large  results  from  too  little 
effort,  and  we  are  furthermore  convinced  that  in 
arrangements  of  concrete  objects,  proportion  is  less 
easily  discernible  than  in  the  arrangement  of  geometric 
elements. 

In  general,  our  chief  points  of  difference  from  some 
representatives  of  the  kindergarten  with  regard  to 
design  are  a  more  pronounced  evolutionary  accent 
and  the  conviction  that  children  should  be  made 
aware  of  certain  normative  standards. 

THE   APPROACH   TOWARDS   MATHEMATICS 

Kindergarten  gifts  are  not  only  playthings  through 
whose  intelligent  use  an  approach  may  be  made 
towards  the  practical  and  fine  arts.  They  are  most  evi- 
dently intended  by  their  creator  to  make  also  an 
approach  towards  mathematics.  This  fact  is  too  patent 
to  have  escaped  even  the  most  superficial  observation. 
No  child  can  play  constantly  with  spheres,  cubes, 
cylinders,  circles,  squares,  oblongs,  and  other  geometric 
solids  and  planes  without  creating  in  himself  a  ten- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  219 

dency  to  classify  presented  objects  under  these  arche- 
typal forms;  neither  can  he  constantly  apply  numerical 
relations  without  creating  in  himself  a  tendency  to 
observe  them.  His  play  with  the  kindergarten  gifts, 
therefore,  weaves  in  his  mind  a  series  of  "apperceptive 
nets"  with  which  he  catches  and  holds  presented 
objects. 

The  history  of  the  kindergarten  makes  evident  the 
fact  that  there  has  often  been  a  deplorably  exagger- 
ated emphasis  upon  form  and  number.  When  a  child 
describes  a  dog  as  a  large  cylinder  in  a  lying  position 
and  supported  by  four  upright  cylinders;  when  looking 
at  a  beautiful  picture  he  notices  only  that  its  frame  is 
oblong;  or  when,  instead  of  listening  to  an  interesting 
story,  he  counts  the  buttons  on  the  narrator's  dress, 
it  is  manifest  that  a  distinct  arrest  in  mental  develop- 
ment has  been  made  by  some  exponent  of  the  "devel- 
oping method  "  of  education.  It  was  only  natural  that 
such  arresting  work  should  call  forth  both  a  theoretic 
and  practical  protest,  and  that  large  numbers  of  present- 
day  kindergartners  should  insist  that  the  stimulus  of 
the  material  itself  is  the  only  mathematical  incitement 
needed  and  that  it  is  an  educational  error  to  direct 
attention  either  to  geometric  archetypes  or  numerical 
relations.  Stated  in  the  terminology  of  the  kinder- 
garten, this  point  of  view  demands  the  elimination  of 
that  type  of  exercise  described  by  Froebel  as  making 
forms  of  knowledge. 

The  French  have  a  proverb  to  the  effect  that  it  is 
foolish  to  throw  out  the  child  with  the  water  in  which 
it  has  been  washed.  Were  we  to  throw  out  of  the  kin- 
dergarten all  the  forms  of  activity  which  have  been 


220  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

perverted  by  exaggeration,  we  should  leave  ourselves 
nothing  to  do.  Were  we  to  refuse  appeal  to  all  the 
native  tendencies  of  childhood  to  which  some  kinder- 
gartners  have  appealed  in  ridiculous  ways,  we  should 
cut  ourselves  off  from  every  path  by  which  a  child's 
interests  may  be  reached  and  his  activity  aroused. 
We  do  not  reject  animism  because  some  ignorant  kin- 
dergartner  describes  a  pea  as  having  cheeks  and  then 
tells  her  children  to  run  a  stick  through  them.  We  do 
not  discard  symbolism  because  of  such  absurd  per- 
versions as  drawing  an  apple  and  telling  children  it 
stands  for  all  the  fruits  of  the  Thanksgiving  season. 
We  do  not  give  up  the  ideal  of  inner  connectedness 
because  numbers  of  kindergartners  make  arbitrary 
connections.  Neither  shall  we  give  up  forms  of  know- 
ledge because  numbers  of  kindergartners  have  unduly 
emphasized  geometric  forms  and  numerical  relations. 
The  true  way  of  escape  from  arresting  methods  is  to 
create  kindergartners  consciously  aware  of  the  differ- 
ent educational  values  and  their  relative  importance. 
It  is  because  many  essential  things  are  left  undone 
that  there  is  time  for  less  important  things  to  be  over- 
done. In  any  good  kindergarten  time  should  be  con- 
sciously divided  between  eleven  forms  of  activity 
graded  in  the  order  of  their  value.  These  exercises  are 
Pure  Movement  and  Dance  Games,  Representative 
Games,  Learning  of  Songs  and  Poems,  Looking  at 
Pictures,  Listening  to  Stories,  Excursions,  Garden 
Work,  Care  of  Animals,  Representation  of  three  kinds 
—  with  solid  material,  with  planes  and  with  lines.  Is 
it  not  self-evident  that  an  intelligent  division  of  time 
between  these  several  forms  of  activity  will  not  only 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  221 

preclude  undue  emphasis  upon  form  and  number,  but 
will  tend  to  eliminate  all  the  other  one-sided  extremes 
into  which  the  kindergarten  has  been  betrayed  by  the 
defects  of  its  representatives  ? 

Since  the  Froebelian  approach  toward  the  value  of 
mathematics  is  less  generally  understood  than  the 
approaches  toward  the  practical  and  fine  arts,  it  may 
be  well  to  mention  some  of  the  typical  exercises  through 
which  this  approach  is  made.  In  the  kindergarten 
little  children  spin  the  sphere,  cube,  and  cylinder  of 
the  Second  Gift  so  as  to  exhibit  a  panoramic  procession 
and  metamorphosis  of  forms.  They  blow  soap-bubbles 
and  by  the  help  of  circular  wires  change  iridescent 
spheres  into  cylinders.  They  pound  clay  spheres  on 
opposite  sides  and  produce  cubes.  They  divide  spheres, 
cubes,  and  cylinders  of  correspondent  diameters  by 
the  same  principal  axial  cuts.  They  make  with  clay, 
cardboard,  and  sticks  connected  by  softened  peas,  the 
series  of  forms  from  the  triangular  pyramid  to  the  cone 
and  from  the  triangular  prism  to  the  cylinder.  They 
connect  the  square  with  the  circle  through  play  with 
sticks  and  with  the  jointed  slats.  They  reproduce  in 
clay  the  series  of  the  solid  gifts,  and  by  cutting  them 
become  aware  of  the  relations  of  their  component 
parts.  With  the  Third,  Fourth,  Fifth,  Sixth,  and 
Seventh  Gifts  they  illustrate  fractional  relations, 
square  root  and  cube  root.  They  learn  to  recognize  the 
same  square  and  cubic  contents  in  different  forms. 
They  make  many  significant  perceptible  ratios  between 
forms.  They  derive  planes,  lines,  and  points  from  the 
solid  and  build  up  the  solid  from  points,  lines,  and 
planes.  Could  we  keep  our  children  longer,  they  would 


222  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

evolve  not  only  the  circle,  but  a  number  of  different 
curves  from  their  tangents.  They  would  make  analyses 
of  clay  spheres,  cylinders,  and  cones  correspondent  to 
the  analyses  of  the  cube  offered  in  our  existent  building 
gifts.  They  would  receive  Froebel's  completed  Second 
Gift  and  derive  the  tetrahedron,  octohedron,  rhombic 
dodecahedron,  and  three  transitional  forms  from  the 
cube.  Finally,  they  would  make  the  Seventh  Gift  cut, 
and,  after  learning  through  experience  how  the  tetra- 
hedra  it  yields  are  produced,  would  be  given  numbers 
of  these  tetrahedra  to  combine  into  different  forms 
and  to  use  in  making  metamorphoses  of  form.  For,  as 
Froebel  himself  writes:  "The  keystone  of  kindergarten 
employment  is  the  transformation  of  solid  bodies  and 
consequently  the  knowledge  of  the  relations  of  the 
different  geometric  solids  to  one  another  as  well  as 
their  development  from  one  another."  l 

No  kindergartner  who  has  ever  helped  her  children 
to  make  a  genetic  evolution  of  geometric  forms,  who 
has  noticed  the  zest  with  which  they  discover  relations 
between  these  forms,  who  has  become  aware  of  their 
value  in  illustrating  relations  of  number,  and  who  has 
understood  the  necessity  of  furnishing  a  perceptible 
basis  for  the  idea  of  ratio,  will  doubt  that  Froebel  has 
broken  a  better  path  of  approach  towards  mathematics 
than  has  been  made  by  any  later  educator.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  must  be  granted  that  comparatively 
little  of  the  work  he  planned  should  be  carried  out  with 
children  under  the  age  of  six.  This  minimum  work, 

1  It  U  hoped  that  our  readers  will  observe  that  in  all  the  exercises 
referred  to,  children  either  use  things,  make  things,  cut  things,  or 
combine  things.  Every  exercise  is  a  deed  or  series  of  deeds. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  223 

however,  is  important,  because  without  it  a  nascent 
interest  in  mathematical  relations  may  be  atrophied 
by  disuse. 

The  first  merit  of  the  Froebelian  approach  to  mathe- 
matics is  that  through  it  children  are  incited  to  discover 
mathematical  relations.  The  second  is  that  it  creates 
a  dynamic  and  evolutionary  conception  of  mathe- 
matics. The  third  is  that  the  several  concepts  of  form, 
number,  and  ratio  are  conceived  and  treated  in  their 
organic  unity.  The  fourth  is  that  since  the  discoveries 
made  are  typical  facts,  they  are  ancestral  thoughts 
and  constantly  beget  a  progeny  of  new  discoveries. 

The  prejudice  which  so  many  persons  feel  against 
giving  kindergarten  children  concrete  mathematical 
experiences  arises  from  failure  to  distinguish  between 
the  very  different  ideas  of  giving  elementary  lessons 
in  mathematics  and  quickening  interest  in  mathe- 
matical relations.  It  cannot  be  too  strongly  insisted 
that  these  two  ideas  are  not  only  different  but  antago- 
nistic. There  can  scarcely  be  a  more  effective  check 
upon  mathematical  interest  than  lessons  in  arithmetic  •"  * 
or  object  lessons  on  geometric  forms.  The  kindergarten 
stands  for  the  conviction  that  early  attitude  is  far 
more  important  than  early  teaching,  and  its  play  with 
type  forms  as  an  approach  to  mathematics  is  precisely 
analogous  to  the  care  of  pet  animals  as  an  approach  to 
zoology,  or  garden  work  and  gathering  wild  flowers  as 
approaches  to  botany. 

The  following  narrative  of  an  accidental  experience 
of  childhood  and  its  results  illustrates  precisely  the 
aim  and  method  of  the  kindergarten:  — 

"The  majority  of  professional  teachers,  at  present, 


224  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

f  :  ;on  their  own  confession,  have  no  idea  on  what  depends 
the  receptivity  of  the  child  when  the  teaching  age  for  a 
subject  has  begun.  Parents  also  are  still  so  unawake 
to  this  that  they  confuse  preparation  for  a  subject  with 
premature  teaching  of  a  subject;  and  do  great  harm 
by  such  premature  teaching.  Many  teachers  strongly 
deprecate  amateurish  attempts  to  instruct  children 
before  the  proper  time  and  in  this  I  entirely  agree  with 
them.  A  concrete  instance  may  help  to  make  clear 
in  what  preparation  for  a  subject  consists.  In  my 
young  days  cards  of  different  shapes  were  sold  in  pairs 
in  fancy  shops  for  making  needle-books  and  pin- 
cushions. The  cards  were  intended  to  be  painted  on; 
and  there  was  a  row  of  holes  round  the  edge  by  which 
twin  cards  were  to  be  sewn  together.  As  I  could  not 
paint,  it  got  itself  somehow  suggested  to  me  that  I 
might  decorate  the  cards  by  lacing  silk  threads  across 
the  blank  spaces  by  means  of  the  holes.  When  I  was 
tired  of  so  lacing  that  the  threads  crossed  in  the  centre 
and  covered  the  whole  card,  it  occurred  to  me  to  vary 
the  amusement  by  passing  the  thread  from  each  hole 
to  one  not  exactly  opposite  to  it,  thus  leaving  a  space 
in  the  middle.  I  can  feel  now  the  delight  with  which 
I  discovered  that  the  little  blank  space  so  left  in  the 
middle  of  the  cards  was  bounded  by  a  symmetrical 
curve  made  up  of  a  tiny  bit  of  each  of  my  straight  silk 
lines;  that  its  shape  depended  upon  without  being  the 
same  as  the  outline  of  the  card  and  that  I  could  modify 
it  by  altering  the  distance  of  the  down-stitch  from  the 
up-stitch  immediately  preceding.  As  the  practical  art 
of  sewing  perforated  cards  was  already  quite  familiar 
to  me,  my  brain  was  free  to  receive  as  a  seed  the  dis- 


THE  KINDERGAKTEN  225 

covery  I  had  made  and  to  let  it  grow  naturally,  all  the 
more  because  no  one  spoke  to  me  then  of  tangents  or 
tried  to  teach  me  any  algebraic  geometry  until  some 
years  had  elapsed.  Therefore,  when  I  did  begin  to  learn 
artificially  about  tangents,  the  teacher  was  not  obliged 
to  put  cuttings  into  raw  soil;  he  found  ready  a  good 
strong  wild  stock  of  living  interest  in  the  relation  between 
a  curve  and  the  straight  lines  which  generate  it  on  to 
which  he  was  able  to  graft  the  new  knowledge.  The 
teacher  came,  not  as  an  outsider  thrusting  on  me  the 
knowledge  of  something  unfamiliar  and  strange,  but 
as  a  brother-seer,  more  advanced  than  myself,  who 
could  show  me  how  to  make  further  progress  on  a  path 
which  I  had  already  entered  with  delight.  On  such 
accidents  as  this  of  my  card  sewing  depends  I  think  much 
of  those  special  receptivities  for  certain  subjects  quite 
distinct  from  great  power  which  puzzle  psychologists. 
When  we  understand  better  how  they  originate  they  will 
no  longer  depend  upon  accident  and  we  shall  more  often 
be  able  to  produce  them  at  will"  l 

"In  a  concrete  experience,"  writes  Froebel,  "three 
things  are  always  present:  the  particular  fact,  its 
universal  application,  and  the  relationship  of  both  to 
the  person  who  has  the  experience." 2 

The  kindergartner  who  understands  these  words  will 
never  teach  mathematics,  but  neither  will  she  desist 
from  the  attempt  to  quicken  interest  in  mathematical 
relations  and  awaken  mathematical  imagination.3 

1  M.  E.  Boole,  Preparation  of  the  Child  for  Science,  pp.  91-93. 
(Italics  mine.) 

1  Mottoes  and  Commentaries,  p.  122. 

1  Some  contemporary  writers  describe  concrete  experiences  of 
typical  facts  as  "material  for  unconscious  cerebration."  as  "fertili- 


226  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

THE   APPROACH  TOWARD  SCIENCE 

The  main  purpose  of  our  discussion  of  the  kinder- 
garten program  has  been  to  suggest  the  approach  it 
makes  from  the  concrete  experiences  of  childhood 
toward  the  values  of  life.  (Dne  great  value  —  the  value 
of  science  —  remains  to  be  considered,  and  the  point 
we  desire  to  stress  is  that  kindergarten  children  ap- 
proach this  value  most  directly  through  the  mathe- 
matical stimulus  of  the  Froebelian  gifts.  As  a  single 
illustration  of  such  approach,  let  us  consider  the  ques- 
tions a  child  may  be  incited  to  ask  and  answer  through 
his  play  with  the  Third  and  Fourth  Gifts.  Why  can 
the  bricks  stand,  sit,  and  lie,  while  the  cubes  can  take 
only  one  position?  Why  is  it  so  much  easier  to  knock 
over  a  brick  than  a  cube?  Why,  when  bricks  are  set 
in  a  row  and  one  is  struck,  do  all  tumble,  while  eight 
cubes  in  a  row  stand  solid  against  the  most  vigorous 
attack?  Why  do  the  bricks  of  the  Fourth  Gift  make 
so  much  better  walls  and  floors  than  the  cubes  of  the 
Third  Gift?  Why  can  the  child  build  with  them  so 
much  better  steps?  Why  can  he  inclose  such  large 
yards  and  windows,  and  yards  and  windows  of  so 
many  shapes?  Why  can  he  pile  his  cubes  only  in  five 
ways,  while  he  can  pile  his  bricks  in  forty  ways?  Why 
is  it  possible  with  his  bricks  to  make  so  many  delight- 
ful experiments  in  balance  and  equilibrium,  and  why 
do  they  yield  such  a  variety  of  symmetric  forms? 
Great  is  the  joy  of  the  embryo  experimenter  when  he 

zation  of  the  unconscious  mind,"  as  a  "crystallizing  thread  around 
which  later  experiences  may  group  themselves."  The  process  is  the 
same,  however  described,  but  Froebel's  description,  which  implies  a 
minimum  degree  of  consciousness,  is  the  most  accurate. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  227 

discovers  that  one  fact  answers  all  these  questions. 
His  cubes  stand  firmly  and  do  so  little,  because  their 
length,  breadth,  and  thickness  are  equal;  his  bricks 
are  so  easily  overturned  and  do  so  much,  because  they 
are  twice  as  long  as  they  are  broad  and  twice  as  broad*. 
as  they  are  thick. 

We  do  not  ignore  the  path  of  approach  towards 
science  opened  through  constructive  exercises,  neither 
do  we  undervalue  the  reaction  upon  the  mind  of  the 
simpler  relations  to  which  attention  may  be  called 
during  excursions  into  nature  and  in  connection  with 
garden  work  and  the  care  of  pet  animals.  It  is  well  for 
a  child  to  know  that  his  kitten  has  large  pupils  because 
it  is  a  night-prowler;  that  the  Christmas  tree  is  ever- 
green because  it  has  a  resinous  sap;  that  the  thorn  of 
the  rose  and  the  prickles  of  the  gooseberry  are  weapons 
of  defense  against  animal  attack;  that  the  dandelion 
tufts  he  loves  to  blow  and  the  burdocks  which  stick 
to  his  clothes  are  devices  adopted  by  plants  for  the 
dissemination  of  their  seeds.  The  suggestion  of  these 
and  similar  relations  will  do  something  to  kindle 
interest  in  seeking  relations.  Nevertheless  the  fact 
remains  that  science  means  the  classification  of  facts  ^J? 
and  the  discovery  of  their  relations  and  sequences,  and 
that  no  interest  in  explained  relations,  however  lively, 
implies  development  of  the  scientific  attitude  of  mind.  — 

(7&4^  £**_/  fa***™4cJ 

In  brief  epitome  of  the  final  section  of  our  report  we 
repeat  that  the  kindergarten  program  arises  as  a  spon-  I 
taneous  evolution  out  of  the  life  of  the  kindergarten 
community.   The  object  of  life  in  this  embryo  com- 
munity is  the  social  creation  of  a  play-world.  The  reao- 


(r* 


E28  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

lion  of  this  play-world  upon  its  creators  helps  them  to 
make  an  ideal  interpretation  of  the  larger  world  into 
which  they  are  born.1 

All  great  human  values  are  approximate  definitions 
of  the  human  spirit.  Since  children  participate  in  this 
spirit  they  tend  to  re-create  human  values.  The  kinder- 
garten aims  to  abet  this  process  of  creation  and  to  help 
children  to  do  better  what  they  themselves  are  trying 
to  do. 

It  is  as  native  to  mind  to  scrutinize  its  deeds  as  to 
create  these  deeds.  Therefore,  the  genetic-developing 
method  calls  upon  children  not  only  to  act,  but  to 
observe  the  result  and  process  of  activity.  Through 
such  scrutiny,  mind  takes  possession  of  itself.  It 
would  be  a  parody  of  the  Froebelian  method  should 
there  be  any  attempt  to  anticipate  in  consciousness  an 
unattained  level  of  experience.  It  is  an  omission  of  one 
of  the  most  distinctive  features  of  the  method  when 
actual  experience  is  not  observed,  interpreted,  and 
assimilated.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  only  through 
such  observation  is  life  transmuted  into  experience. 

If  Froebel  is  wrong  in  holding  that  upon  every  level 
of  experience  human  beings  should  act,  should  notice 
their  action  and  its  result,  and  through  such  scrutiny 
take  possession  of  themselves  and  incite  themselves 
to  mount  to  a  higher  plane  of  life,  then  the  kindergarten 
as  he  conceived  it  is  an  educational  blunder.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  may  be  that  Froebel  is  right,  then, 
verily,  there  is  "a  new  thing  under  the  sun,"  the  ex- 
cluding extremes  of  educational  absolutism  and  educa- 

1  For  a  definition  of  what  is  meant  by  an  ideal  interpretation  of 
the  world,  see  Educational  Issue*  in  the  Kindergarten,  p.  63. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  229 

tional  anarchy  have  been  mediated,  and  the  little  child 
made  a  happy  copartner  in  the  process  of  his  own  nor- 
mal development. 

We  accept  the  genetic  method  as  our  working 
hypothesis  for  education.  The  world  has  not  succeeded 
so  well  with  the  plans  previously  tried  as  to  discourage 
us  from  experiment.  We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  all  around  us  are  men  and  women  who  are 
slaves  to  the  moral  evils  they  were  not  taught  in  child- 
hood to  face  and  also  slaves  to  the  intellectual  preju- 
dices which  have  accumulated  in  their  minds  through 
the  subconscious  convergence  and  coalescence  of  unin- 
terpreted  experiences.  Froebel  at  least  dreamed  of  an 
education  which  from  the  beginning  should  aim  at 
conscious  insight  and  free  self-direction.  We  are  will- 

— -•      —  •.  Jii.i     •  •  •     ••^^^•|^p*^<  M     A 

ing  to  give  our  lives  to  the  effort  to  prove  this  dream 

*t  if*^ 
true. 

The  kindergarten  is  the  educational  phase  of  a  great  ^kt* 
"time  movement"  whose  character  is  defining  itself 
through  many  different  expressions.  Humanity  is 
stirred  in  its  inmost  depths  by  a  new  divination  of  its 
own  freedom.  The  great  mass  of  men  obscurely  feel 
that  they  should  have  larger  opportunity  to  grow  into 
freedom,  and  threaten  society  by  an  inarticulate  de- 
mand for  their  birthright.  The  favored  minority 
tremble  with  the  suspicion  that  they  can  no  longer 
keep  their  own  manhood  if  they  deny  their  brethren 
the  privilege  of  becoming  men.  The  church  announces 
that  nothing  but  a  fierier  flame  of  religious  life  can 
make  possible  clearer  vision  of  Eternal  Reality.  Lit- 
erature and  art  are  once  more  enthroning  and  crowning 
the  human  will.  Great  statesmen  descry  from  afar  the 


230  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

vision  of  maternal  governments  which  shall  nurture 
in  their  citizens  the  ideals  of  freedom.  The  one  great 
message  of  the  Time-Spirit  is,  Become,  O  man,  the 
truth  you  would  see,  and  thereby  achieve  the  freedom 
which  is  your  dower  from  God.  Echoing  this  message 
the  kindergarten  whispers,  Educate  your  little  children 
through  the  deed  which  sees  into  and  through  itself, 
and  thereby  help  them  to  mount  over  stepping-stones 
of  ever-dying  selves  to  living  selfhood. 

SUSAN  E.  BLOW.  CAROLINE  M.  C.  HART. 

MARIA  KRAus-BoELTE.1  LAURA  FISHER. 

ADA  MAREAN  HucHEs.1  MARIAN  B.  B.  LANGZETTEL. 

ALICE  E.  FITTS.*  HARRIET  NIEL. 

MART  C.  McCuLLocn.  FANNIEBELLE  CURTIS. 

1  While  agreeing  in  the  main  with  Miss  Blow's  report,  I  find  a  dif- 
ference in  point  of  view  with  regard  to  a  detailed  program  planned 
for  the  year,  and  also  with  regard  to  the  general  arrangement  and 
decoration  and  opening  of  the  kindergarten. 

1  The  contents  of  this  report  I  endorse  as  Froebelian  theory.  This 
method  of  application  of  these  theories  in  the  kindergarten,  I  differ 
from.  I  believe  that  each  kindergartner  should  make  her  own  pro- 
gram, and  that  this  program  should  be  adapted  to  individual  condi- 
tions. 


IT  tt_  d  Cr  •     M  _    .  ;.  ff^-z 


SECOND  REPORT 
PATTY  SMITH  HILL 


PART  I 

THE  PRINCIPLES  UNDERLYING  THE  SELEC- 
TION AND  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  SUBJECT- 
MATTER  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN  PROGRAM 

ANY  conception  of  the  kindergarten  as  an  organic 
part  of  education  presupposes  a  faith,  more  or  less 
conscious,  in  the  universality  and  validity  of  the  laws 
which  underlie  both  the  higher  and  the  lower  educa- 
tion. 

When  teachers  of  all  grades  shall  accept  the  univer- 
sal validity  of  so  fundamental  a  law  as  self-activity, 
the  differences  found  in  the  curricula  of  kindergarten, 
primary,  and  elementary  education  will  not  be  due,  as 
formerly,  to  the  acceptance  of  Froebelian  theories  of 
development  in  the  lower  grades  and  to  Herbartian 
theories  in  the  higher  grades.  The  day  has  passed 
when  kindergartners  can  afford  to  offer  as  an  argument 
against  a  theory  its  Herbartian  origin.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  fact  that  primary  and  elementary  teachers 
have  so  largely  accepted  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Froebel,  is  sufficient  guarantee  of  their  breadth  of 
view. 

Now  that  self-activity  is  so  universally  recognized 
as  the  basic  law  of  growth  in  all  education,  we  have  as 
a  result  an  intelligent  effort  to  study  each  stage  of 
development  in  order  to  discover  those  aspects  of  a 
common  subject-matter  which  will  stimulate  normal 
self -effort. 


234  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

The  group  of  kindergartners  who  unite  in  presenting 
this  report  conceive  of  the  kindergarten  program  as  a 
flexible  plan  of  action,  which  plan  affords  the  teacher 
the  opportunity  of  selecting  and  organizing  those 
native  activities,  interests,  and  experiences  common  to 
all  children  together  with  the  subject-matter  which 
feeds  them.  This  flexible  plan  should  admit  those  aims 
and  purposes  of  the  child  which  have  educational 
significance,  as  well  as  those  which  have  been  con- 
tributed by  the  wider  experience  of  the  teacher. 

The  problems  of  primary  importance  in  the  kinder- 
garten are  the  same  as  those  in  all  education;  namely, 
what  shall  we  teach  —  and  how  shall  we  teach  it?  The 
former  problem  gives  rise  to  the  need  of  selecting 
the  right  materials  or  subject-matter;  the  latter,  to 
the  importance  of  right  method  in  presentation  and 
execution. 

Since  Dr.  Dewey  wrote  his  Pedagogical  Creed,  and 
The  Child  and  the  Curriculum,  it  is  well-nigh  common- 
place in  modern  educational  theory  to  state  that  the 
process  of  education  to  which  the  kindergarten  pro- 
gram and  curricula  of  education  correspond  has  two 
distinctive  aspects  which  may  be  differentiated  — 
the  psychological  and  the  sociological.  The  psycho- 
logical aspect  presents  the  claim  of  the  individual  — 
the  right  of  the  child  to  be  studied  in  order  that  the 
teacher  may  discover  the  methods  which  must  be  pur- 
sued in  putting  at  the  child's  disposal  opportunities 
for  the  fullest  development  of  all  his  native  powers 
in  and  through  social  situations.  The  sociological  as- 
pect presents  the  rightful  claim  of  society  to  an  educa- 
tion which  will  develop  in  the  members  social  con- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  235 

sciousness  and  readiness  for  social  service.  This  is  but 
a  legitimate  return  demanded  by  society  for  its  be- 
quests —  tested  and  tried  values,  and  richest  experi- 
ences, to  each  new  generation.  The  mutual  rights  of 
the  individual  and  of  society  demand  that  society  real- 
ize its  obligation  to  educate  every  child  ;  hence  our 
recognition  of  the  necessity  for  compulsory  education. 
The  protection  and  development  of  society,  however, 
demand  that  the  process  by  which  the  child  is  educated 
bring  to  his  consciousness  an  ever-deepening  sense  of 
his  obligation  to  social  service. 

While  these  distinctive  aspects  are  recognized,  they 
cannot  be  separated,  inasmuch  as  they  are  part  of  one 
process,  and  are  related  as  "what"  and  "how,"  as 
ends  and  means,  or  as  aim  and  instrumentality. 

When  this  theory  is  applied  to  the  study  of  the  cur- 
riculum and  to  the  methods  of  education,  we  have 
two  interrelated  factors;  on  the  one  hand,  we  have 
as  motive  power  those  early  manifestations  of  self- 
activity  contributed  by  the  child  in  the  form  of  in- 
stincts and  impulses  or  native  tendencies ;  on  the 
other  hand,  we  have  the  subject-matter  or  materials 
of  the  course  of  study  contributed  by  the  experience 
of  past  and  of  present  civilization,  which  serves  as 
stimulus  to  the  self-activity  of  the  child. 

When  self-activity  comes  into  contact  with  the  ma- 
terial of  civilization,  a  process  of  interaction  is  set 
up  in  which  the  child  may  be  led  to  appreciate  and  re- 
create, in  his  own  immature,  crude  way,  the  so-called 
achievements  of  civilization.  In  this  process  of  action 
and  reaction  between  self-activity  and  materials, 
carried  on  under  the  guidance  of  a  teacher  who  has 


«38  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

a  knowledge  of  both,  Froebel  hoped  to  harmonize  his 
twofold  ideal  of  education  as  a  process  by  which  the 
self  both  achieves  and  inherits  the  experience  of  the 
race.  If  it  is  granted  that  education  is  a  self-active 
process  in  which  the  individual  must  on  a  small  scale 
re-win  as  well  as  inherit  the  experience  achieved  by 
the  race,  then  materials  become  an  actual  necessity. 
In  this  way  they  become  an  organic  part  of  education, 
serving  as  stimulus  to  the  powers  resident  in  the  child, 
and  also  as  the  stuff  out  of  which  the  self  realizes  or 
actualizes  its  aims  and  purposes.  Thus  materials  be- 
come what  Froebel  calls  a  "counterpart"  to  the  child, 
activity  and  materials  being  inseparable  aspects  of 
one  and  the  same  process,  each  being  incomplete  and 
inconceivable  without  the  other. 

This  conception  of  the  relation  between  the  self- 
activity  of  the  child  and  the  materials  of  the  curricu- 
lum would  seem  to  define  the  teacher  as  one  who  stands 

ttween,  serving  as  mediator,  interpreter,  or  guide. 
e,  with  her  knowledge  of  the  creative  impulses  of 
the  child,  and  with  her  insight  into  the  educational 
values  embodied  in  the  materials,  selects  and  presents 
to  him  that  subject-matter  for  which  he  is  ready.  By 
her  insight  into  the  reaction  of  each  of  these  upon  the 
other,  she  brings  to  the  consciousness  of  the  child  those 
values  which  adult  guidance  alone  can  adequately 
reveal  to  him. 

In  this  sense  the  teacher  becomes  a  guardian  of  the 
child  and  of  the  experience  of  the  race,  a  trustee  of 
society.  The  teacher,  then,  is  the  social  agent  selected 
by  society  to  transmit  its  noblest  traditions,  and  to 
train  immature  members  to  appreciate,  respect,  and 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  287 

preserve  the  permanent  bequests  from  the  past,  with 
the  hope  that  the  child  will  in  time  contribute  his 
share  in  creating  an  ever-new  and  nobler  civilization. 

This  view  of  the  course  of  study  grows  out  of  the 
acceptance  of  three  fundamental  theories  regarding 
the  nature  of  mind,  and  the  relation  of  the  child-mind 
and  subject-matter  to  the  civilization  of  the  past  and 
of  the  future:  first,  mind  must  be  defined  in  terms  of 
activity  —  an  activity  involving  all  the  varied  im- 
pulses which  make  it  possible  for  the  self  to  appreciate, 
know,  and  control;  second,  subject-matter  must  be 
interpreted  as  human  achievement  —  as  the  tested 
and  tried  results  of  past  struggles  in  man's  adaptation 
to,  and  control  over,  an  environment  natural  and 
social;  third,  it  must  be  recognized  that  the  same  crea- 
tive spirit  which  has  achieved  the  great  arts,  sciences, 
religions,  and  institutions  of  the  highest  civilization  of 
the  past  and  of  the  present,  has  its  dim  beginnings  in 
the  work  and  play  of  the  child.  The  subject-matter 
of  the  curriculum,  or  the  achievements  of  civilization 
in  which  it  has  its  origin,  makes  its  own  appeal  to 
these  immature  but  native  tendencies  in  the  child 
which  are,  however  unconsciously  and  inadequately, 
reaching  out  for  and  aiming  toward  similar  achieve- 
ments. Could  we  know  just  what  aspects  of  subject- 
matter  the  child  is  ready  for,  the  discipline  of  the  school  ^Us  v 
would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  because  the  child 
would  be  held  by  the  materials  and  by  the  problems  ;  Ar 
presented  by  the  teacher  rather  than  by  the  teacher 
herself. 

The  simplest  and  sanest  basis  of  organization  for  the 
subject-matter  of  a  course  of  study  seems  to  grow  out 


238  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  the  theory  that  it  originates  in,  and  grows  out  of, 
social  life.  Here  each  study  is  treated  as  one  differen- 
tiated aspect  of  social  experience,  which  has  emerged 
out  of  an  original  unity  in  social  life  to  which  the  cur- 
riculum itself  corresponds. 

The  most  fundamental  problems  hi  the  planning  of 
a  kindergarten  program,  or  course  of  study,  may  be 
stated  as  follows :  — 

I.  The  selection  of  the  impulses,  instincts,  and  in- 
terests which  are  developing  at  this  period  of  the 
child's  growth,  and  which  make  for  the  highest  good 
of  the  child  and  society  when  provided  with  educative 
stimuli  or  material. 

II.  The  selection  of  the  best  subject-matter  or 
materials  for  the  creative  impulses  of  the  child  to  act 
upon  hi  the  self -active  process  through  which  he  conies 
to  appreciate  and  re-create  the  achievements  of  civili- 
zation. 

III.  The  organization,  correlation,  or  arrangement 
of  the  subject-matter  or  materials  in  a  unity  such  as 
makes  for  the  economy  and  simplification  of  the  whole. 
This  unity  must  be  secured  without  sacrificing  the 
individual  nature  or  achievement  of  any  one  of  the 
impulses  entering  into  the  organization. 

Before  we  can  progress  further  it  is  necessary  to 
treat  each  of  these  problems  more  fully. 

I 

The  first  problem  presents  the  need  of  two  studies. 
In  the  first  place,  it  demands  a  study  of  the  child  him- 
self in  order  to  discover  which  instincts  or  impulses  are 
growing  most  rapidly  at  any  stage  of  development  and 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  230 

making  the  most  insistent  demand  for  food  and  exer- 
cise. The  necessity  for  this  study  grows  out  of  what 
Dr.  James  terms  the  "law  of  transitoriness  in  in- 
stincts." l  "Many  instincts  ripen  at  a  certain  age  and 
then  fade  away.  A  consequence  of  this  law  is  that  if 
during  the  time  of  such  an  instinct's  vivacity  objects 
adequate  to  arouse  it  are  met  with,  a  habit  of  acting 
on  them  is  formed,  which  remains  when  the  original 
instinct  has  passed  away.  In  all  pedagogy  the  great 
thing  is  to  strike  the  iron  while  it  is  hot."  Or,  again, 
"In  children  we  observe  a  ripening  of  impulses  and 
interests  in  a  certain  determinate  order.  Later,  the 
interest  in  any  one  of  these  things  may  wholly  fade 
away.  The  hour  may  not  last  long,  and  while  it  con- 
tinues you  may  safely  let  all  the  child's  other  occupa- 
tions take  a  second  place."  2 

The  second  aspect  of  this  problem  demands  keen 
discrimination  in  studying  the  relation  of  the  lower 
stages  in  the  development  of  an  instinct  in  relation 
to  its  higher  manifestation.  While  the  philosophy  of 
idealism  which  Froebel  represents,  acknowledges  the 
evolutionary  process  as  a  fundamental  factor  in  edu- 
cation, it  continually  asserts  its  belief  that  the  true 
nature  of  any  impulse  on  its  lower  levels  of  develop- 
ment can  be  evaluated  only  in  terms  of  its  highest 
realization. 

Many  instincts  of  recognized  importance  in  their 
maturer  stages  give  little  promise  of  this  significance 
in  the  crudity  of  their  early  expression.  Because  of 
this,  instincts  which  later  are  of  great  value  to  society 

1  James,  Psychology,  pp.  402-404. 
*  James.  Talks  to  Teachers,  p.  61. 


240  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

are  often  overlooked  in  their  crude  forms  of  expression 
in  child  life.  An  ability  to  discern  promise  in  these 
transitory  instincts,  which  often  fade  for  want  of  food 
and  exercise,  would  insure  their  preservation  for  the 
present  development  of  the  child  and  the  future  wel- 
fare of  society. 


Any  attempt  to  solve  the  second  problem  in  the 
construction  of  a  course  of  study  demands  not  only  a 
consideration  of  the  materials  of  civilization,  but  in- 
volves the  still  more  subtle  question  —  what  aspect 
of  these  materials  will  meet  the  needs  of  children  at 
different  stages  of  development.  One  must  know  not 
only  materials  in  general,  but,  also,  what  in  particular 
should  be  selected  to  present  to  children  at  a  given 
age  or  grade. 

Those  materials  must  be  presented  which  best  stim- 
ulate the  impulses  developing  at  the  time.  The  process 
by  which  the  child  comes  to  assimilate  the  educational 
values  embodied  in  materials  is  a  self-active  one  in 
which,  in  a  small  way,  he  comes  to  reinvent  or  redis- 
cover these  values  won  by  past  civilizations.  The 
dynamic  or  experimental  method  must  be  preserved 
throughout.  Even  though  the  mode  of  expression  may 
be  crude,  it  must  represent  the  high-water  mark  of  the 
child's  ability  at  any  given  stage. 

The  subject-matter  presented  should  grow  out  of  the 
child's  personal  experience,  or  in  some  way  function 
in  it,  if  he  is  to  gain  that  insight  which  is  necessary 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  experiences  of  the  past. 

If  it  is  granted  that  the  subject-matter  of  the  kin- 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  241 

dergarten  should  grow  out  of,  and  interpret,  the  ex- 
periences of  the  children,  this  would  seem  to  suggest 
the  necessity  for  variation  of  both  subject-matter  and 
method  in  meeting  the  needs  of  children  living  in 
different  natural  and  social  situations. 

The  function  of  environment  in  the  process  of  build- 
ing up  experience  would  demand  a  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical treatment  far  beyond  the  scope  of  a  report  of 
this  nature;  but  as  many  of  the  differences  in  both 
theory  and  practice  of  the  kindergarten  arise  from 
conscious,  or  unconscious,  differences  regarding  this 
particular  aspect  of  philosophy,  it  must  at  least  be 
touched  upon.  Few  are  conscious  of  the  theory  of 
knowledge  which  underlies  their  practice,  though  all 
are  consciously,  or  unconsciously,  acting  upon  the 
method  suggested  by  a  philosophy  of  mysticism,  ra- 
tionalism, empiricism,  or  pragmatism  as  a  knowledge 
process. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  function  of  environ- 
ment has  been  ignored  by  some  educators  and  over- 
emphasized by  others.  Few  have  seen  that,  while 
environment  is  an  important  factor  in  the  making  of 
experience,  it  is  neither  independent  of  nor  identical 
with  it. 

From  one  point  of  view,  environment  may  be  studied 
as  a  stimulus  to  mind,  stirring  the  creative  impulses 
to  act  upon  it  in  a  process  of  adaptation  to  and  control 
over  it.  In  this  process  of  interaction  both  the  self  and 
the  situation  undergo  a  change;  the  environment  not 
only  serving  to  stimulate  the  mind  by  setting  up  an 
obstruction  or  problem  which  demands  adaptation  as 
solution,  but  serving  also  as  the  means  of  realization. 


242  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

Thus  environment  provides  the  very  stuff  which  stim- 
ulates the  self  to  reconstruct  its  own  thought,  and  to 
alter  the  face  of  the  external  world. 

If  it  is  acknowledged  that  environment  is  at  least 
a  factor  of  importance  in  the  experience  process,  and 
that  not  only  the  self  but  environment  changes,  one 
would  seem  to  have  an  argument  in  favor  of  a  careful 
study  of  the  r61e  played  by  these  varying  environments 
in  the  experience  of  different  children. 

While  the  majority  of  kindergartners  agree  in  the 
theoretical  statement  that  the  program  is  based  upon 
the  experiences  of  children,  —  that  it  is  these  experi- 
ences which  are  to  be  selected,  interpreted,  and  organ- 
ized, —  few  seem  to  act  consistently  upon  the  possi- 
bilities and  limitations  of  environment  in  illuminating, 
modifying,  and  rectifying  these  experiences. 

Out  of  the  different  attitudes  of  kindergartners 
regarding  the  function  of  environment  in  broadening, 
deepening,  completing,  or  reconstructing  the  experi- 
ences of  children  living  under  varied  conditions,  grow 
the  much-discussed  problems  as  to  the  uses  of  some- 
what fixed  or  uniform  programs. 

The  varied  individualities,  temperaments,  training, 
and  experience  of  the  teachers  as  well  as  those  of  the 
children  would  seem  to  require  the  opportunity  to  vary 
programs  and  courses  of  study,  if  the  teachers  are  to  do 
living,  vital  work  in  the  classroom. 

Common  sense  would  seem  to  demand  that  any 
course  of  study  which  is  supposed  to  meet  the  actual, 
as  well  as  the  theoretical,  needs  of  particular  groups 
of  children  should  embody  the  convictions  of  both  the 
supervisor  and  the  classroom  teacher. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  243 

School  administration  under  a  democratic  govern- 
ment seems  to  demand  a  study  of  those  conditions 
which  make  freedom  go  hand  in  hand  with  guidance. 
Democratic  control  in  schools  should  provide  for  a 
cooperation  between  supervisors  and  classroom  teach- 
ers, sufficiently  flexible  to  leave  ample  opportunity 
for  the  individual  initiative,  conviction,  and  sense  of 
responsibility  on  the  part  of  each,  without  endangering 
the  welfare  of  the  children  or  of  society. 

In  democratic  administration  the  straight  and  nar- 
row path  between  uniform  and  individual  programs 
and  courses  of  study  must  be  solved  in  relation  to 
the  protection  of  the  mutual  rights  and  privileges  of 
(1)  the  classroom  teacher  and  her  children;  (2)  the  su- 
pervising officers  and  the  teachers  under  supervision; 
(3)  the  boards  of  education  or  superintendents,  and 
the  parents  and  the  community  to  which  they  are 
responsible. 

With  the  teachers  and  children  the  problem  seems 
to  present  questions  such  as  these:  How  may  the  indi- 
viduality, personality,  originality,  and  initiative  of  the 
children  be  preserved  in  the  teacher's  attempt  to  or- 
ganize the  whole  through  the  contributions  of  both 
children  and  teachers?  How  can  she  use  the  initiative 
of  each  individual  so  as  to  enrich  the  group,  and  stimu- 
late in  each  a  desire  to  contribute  his  best  to  the 
making  of  the  course  of  study  for  the  whole? 

In  the  case  of  the  supervising  officers  and  teachers 
the  problem  seems  to  be  the  preservation  of  the  indi- 
viduality, personality,  freedom,  and  development  of 
the  classroom  teachers  through  their  attempt  to  pro- 
vide programs  and  courses  of  study  for  the  protection 


£44  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  the  children.  How  may  courses  of  study  be 
planned  in  which  both  the  rank-and-file  teacher  and 
the  supervising  officers  have  contributed  their  common 
and  peculiar  experiences,  their  individual  initiative, 
their  personal  convictions,  and  their  sense  of  respon- 
sibility to  the  boards  of  education,  to  the  parents,  and 
to  the  community? 

Some  of  these  problems  will  be  considered :  — 
1.  The  principles  of  democracy  as  applied  to  the  relations 
of  teachers  and  children. 

If,  as  is  generally  conceded,  the  early  manifestations 
of  self-activity  take  the  form  of  native  impulses  or 
instincts,  we  can  readily  see  that  the  application  of 
democratic  principles  to  early  education  demands 
that  these  contributions  of  the  child  be  utilized  by  the 
teacher  in  the  course  of  study.  Until  these  impulses 
begin  to  react  upon  the  materials  of  the  environment 
in  the  process  of  building  up  ideas  and  knowledge  of 
the  meaning  of  life,  they  are  blind  tendencies  to  do,  or, 
as  Professor  James  puts  it,  "  Instinct  is  usually  defined 
as  the  faculty  of  acting  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce 
certain  ends  without  foresight  of  the  ends."1  At  first 
the  child  contributes  the  activities  only,  the  mother  or 
the  teacher  contributes  the  foresight  of  the  ends  these 
are  destined  to  attain.  Although  some  extreme  adher- 
ents to  a  sort  of  "overwrought  idealism"  may  regard 
these  impulsive  activities  of  too  humble  origin  to  be 
considered,  nevertheless,  they  seem  to  many  the  only 
points  of  departure  in  any  democratic  conception  of  a 
self-active  process  of  education. 

However  blind  the  child  may  be  to  the  ends  which 
1  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,  p.  391. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  245 

these  instinctive  activities  are  destined  to  attain,  the 
teacher  who  is  conversant  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples underlying  modern  psychology  and  pedagogy 
knows  that  these  activities  are  indications  of  awaken- 
ing powers  and  interests  of  great  value  in  the  building 
of  a  curriculum. 

Though  instinctive  activities  may  serve  as  the 
starting-point  and  motive  power  in  early  education, 
yet  the  child,  as  he  comes  to  realize  through  experience 
the  ends  toward  which  he  is  working,  and  learns  to 
adapt  means  to  the  attainment  of  these  ends,  is  gradu- 
ally freed  from  the  domination  of  instinct.  This  eman- 
cipation from  instinct  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  know- 
ledge gained  through  the  early  performance  of  these 


instinctive  activities  awakens  reason  and  reflection. 


When  the  child  is  able  to  reflect  upon  his  past  activi- 
ties, and  through  reason  and  reflection  experiments  in 
order  to  find  better  ways  and  means  to  reconstruct,  *• 
these  instinctive  activities  are  giving  place  to  the  con- 
trol of  ideas  and  thought.  Thus  while  originating  in 
the  blind  impulses  to  act,  they  attain  their  real  signifi- 
cance only  when  dominated  by  reason  and  reflection. 
As  differences  of  opinion  on  this  point  affect  the  prac- 
tical procedure  of  the  kindergarten  materially,  the 
point  seems  worthy  of  illustration.  The  dissimilarity 
in  practice  is  the  result  of  the  theories  regarding  the 
psychological  distinction  between  work  and  play,  and 
the  function  of  each  in  the  kindergarten.  Those  who 
look  upon  play  as  activity  which  is  pursued  with  no 
interest  in  nor  vision  of  ends,  believe  that  kindergarten 
children  are  necessarily  robbed  of  their  native  spon- 
taneity and  freedom  when  they  participate  in  activi- 


246  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

ties  directed  toward  an  end.  Those  holding  to  this 
conviction  would  prescribe  more  of  the  traditional 
occupations  which  have  been  handed  down  from  the 
days  of  Froebel,  such  as  sewing  lines  in  cardboard, 
weaving  paper  mats,  or  the  folding  and  cutting  of 
paper  in  sequences.  It  is  held  by  some  advocates  of  this 
theory  and  practice  that  the  child  at  this  age  has  no 
desire  to  sew,  weave,  or  fold  as  a  means  of  accomplish- 
ing an  end.  The  processes  of  sewing,  weaving,  and 
folding  are  supposed  to  be  sufficiently  absorbing  in 
and  of  themselves,  so  that  the  result  attained  is  of 
slight  moment. 

An  opposing  view  is  held  by  those  cooperating  in 
presenting  this  report.  While  the  younger  children 
may  be  absorbed  in  activity  for  its  own  sake,  we  are 
firmly  convinced  that  the  older  ones  are  not  only  inter- 
ested in  these  processes,  but  are  capable  of  using  some 
of  them  as  a  means  to  a  more  real  end  to  which  they 
apply  themselves  with  spontaneity  and  freedom.  This 
is  not  only  true  when  the  technique  is  partially  under 
control,  but  we  hold  that  the  end  may  serve  in  this 
process  as  a  motive  or  stimulus  in  gaining  mastery  of 
the  processes  involved. 

If  the  problem  or  end  presented  by  the  teacher  is 
one  which  the  child  can  readily  grasp,  and  if  its  solu- 
tion in  any  way  furthers  his  play  and  social  life,  he  is 
not  only  interested  in  the  activity  involved,  but  is 
absorbed  in  discovering  ways  and  means  to  realize  the 
end  toward  which  he  is  working.  For  example,  with 
sufficiently  large  and  durable  material  he  may  weave  a 
simple  doll's  hat  or  rug,  or  fold  and  cut  a  crude  kite, 
both  of  which  will  function  in  his  play  life,  instead 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  247 

of  weaving  paper  mats  and  folding  and  cutting  a 
form  resembling  a  kite  to  paste  in  an  occupation 
book  to  be  taken  home  at  the  end  of]  the  term  or 
year. 

In  a  study  of  the  traditional  occupations  of  the  early 
kindergartens,  and  those  introduced  later  under  the 
rather  misleading  name  "constructive  occupations," 
Dr.  Dewey  draws  this  conclusion:  "Upon  the  whole, 
constructive  or  'built-up'  work  (with,  of  course,  the 
proper  alternative  of  song,  story,  and  game  which  may 
be  connected,  so  far  as  is  desirable,  with  the  ideas 
involved  in  the  construction)  seems  better  fitted  than 
anything  else  to  secure  these  two  factors  —  initiation 
in  the  child's  own  impulse  and  termination  upon  a 
higher  plane.  It  brings  the  child  in  contact  with  a  great 
variety  of  material;  it  supplies  a  motive  for  using  these 
materials  in  real  ways  instead  of  going  through  exer- 
cises having  no  meaning  except  a  remote  symbolic 
one;  it  calls  into  play  alertness  of  the  senses,  and  acute- 
ness  of  observation;  it  demands  clear-cut  imagery  of  the 
ends  to  be  accomplished,  and  requires  ingenuity  and 
invention  in  planning;  it  makes  necessary  concentrated 
attention  and  personal  responsibility  in  execution. 
Unless  the  child  can  get  away  from  it  (that  is,  the 
model)  to  his  own  imagery  when  it  comes  to  execution, 
he  is  rendered  servile  and  dependent,  not  devel- 
oped. .  .  .  From  the  psychological  standpoint  it  may 
safely  be  said  that  when  a  teacher  has  to  rely  upon  a 
series  of  dictated  directions,  it  is  just  because  the  child 
has  no  image  of  his  own  of  what  is  to  be  done  or  why  it 
is  to  be  done.  Instead,  therefore,  of  gaining  power  of 
control,  by  conforming  to  directions,  he  is  really  losing 


248  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

it,  —  made  dependent  upon  an  external  source."1  Or 
again,  "No  one  seriously  questions  that,  with  an  adult, 
power  and  control  are  obtained  through  the  realization 
of  personal  ends  and  problems,  through  personal  selec- 
tion of  means  and  materials  which  are  relevant,  and 
through  personal  adaptation  and  application  of  what 
is  thus  selected,  together  with  whatever  of  experimen- 
tation and  of  testing  is  involved  in  the  effort.  Practi- 
cally every  one  of  these  conditions  of  increase  of  power 
for  the  adult  is  denied  for  the  child.  For  him  problems 
and  aims  are  determined  by  another  mind.  For  him 
material  which  is  relevant  and  irrelevant  is  selected  in 
advance  by  another  mind,  and,  upon  the  whole,  there 
is  such  an  attempt  made  to  teach  him  a  ready-made 
method  for  applying  his  material  to  the  solution  of  his 
problems,  or  the  reaching  of  his  ends,  that  the  factor 
of  experimentation  is  at  the  minimum.  With  the  adult 
we  unquestioningly  assume  that  an  attitude  of  per- 
sonal inquiry,  based  on  the  possession  of  a  problem 
which  interests  and  absorbs,  is  a  necessary  precondi- 
tion of  mental  growth.  With  the  child  we  assume  that 
the  precondition  is  rather  the  willing  condition  to  sub- 
mit to  any  problem  and  material  presented  from  with- 
out. Alertness  is  our  ideal  in  one  case,  docility  in  the 
other." 2  Often  the  end,  aim,  or  problem  which  is  in 
the  teacher's  mind  only,  might  be  easily  and  profitably 
shared  with  the  child,  though  not  initiated  by  him,  if 
the  teacher  realized  the  attitude  of  inquiry  and  eager- 
ness to  find  means  of  solution  which  the  child's  posses- 
sion of  the  aim  or  end  would  stimulate  in  him. 

1  Dpwey,  The  Schoolmaster  and  the  Child,  pp.  58-fll. 
*  Dewey,  Psychology  and  Social  Practice,  pp.  13-14. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  249 

Thus  if  the  occupations  described  above  involve  a 
simple  technique,  and  the  end  is  childlike  and  not  too 
remote,  they  stimulate  interest  and  effort  so  that, 
though  initiated  in  the  play  impulse,  they  develop 
into  the  beginnings  of  creative  work,  art,  and  industry 
on  a  higher  level. 

Dr.  Cole,  in  his  study  of  Herbart  and  Froebel,  states 
clearly  this  principle  of  initiation  through  impulse  and 
emergence  in  values  of  the  curriculum  in  these  words : 
"Freedom  in  education  seems  to  mean  that  instincts 
and  impulses  are  to  be  utilized,  not  eliminated.  For 
these  are  the  obvious  contributions  of  the  self  to  the 
educative  process.  If  they  be  not  respected,  or  in  some 
way  maintained,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  there  should 
be  talk  of  freedom.  Yet  it  is  one  thing  to  respect  in- 
stincts and  impulses,  and  another  to  admire  them  as 
they  blindly  perform  an  unassorted  work.  Then  in- 
stincts and  impulses  may  be  thought  of,  not  as  opposed 
to  ends,  ideals,  or  values  so  much  as  the  possibilities 
and  cravings  for  these  very  realizations  and  satisfac- 
tions. The  educational  situation  ought  then  to  be  not 
impulses  vs.  the  curriculum,  but  impulses  for  it."  l 

The  inability  of  the  child  to  start  from  any  point 
other  than  where  he  is,  makes  the  use  of  his  experience 
with  all  its  narrow  limitations  not  only  advisable  but 
inevitable.  What  else  can  we  start  with  in  any  true 
process  of  development?  Where  the  child  is,  is  the  only 
point  of  departure  for  the  development  of  the  ideal 
experience  which  should  be.  Children  do  not  enter  the 
kindergarten  as  "idealess,"  "purposeless,"  or  "ex- 
perienceless"  as  some  would  have  us  believe.  Pre- 
1  Cole,  Herbart  and  Froebel,  p.  83. 


250  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

kindergarten  experience  has,  through  the  child's 
activities  pouring  out  upon  his  environment,  built  up 
desires,  ideas,  and  purposes,  however  incorrect  or  par- 
tial these  may  be. 

Any  attempt  to  disregard  "His  little  Past"  as  a 
starting-point  because  of  the  poverty  and  narrowness 
of  its  range,  in  order  to  substitute  some  remote,  vicari- 
ous experience  selected  for  its  supposed  ideality,  is  un- 
consciously autocratic,  for  the  following  reasons :  In  any 
educational  institution  laying  claim  to  democracy  the 
child  would  seem  to  have  four  inalienable  rights:  (a) 
The  right  to  express  his  own  ideas  and  experiences  in 
order  to  have  them  rectified,  interpreted,  or  utilized 
for  the  development  of  himself  and  for  the  social  group; 
(6)  the  right  to  have  his  own  limited,  narrow,  and  per- 
sonal experience  extended  through  those  contributed 
by  other  children  in  the  group;  (c)  the  right  to  partici- 
pate in  the  wider  experience  and  vision  of  the  teacher; 
(d)  the  right  to  come  into  direct  contact  with  the  ex- 
perience of  the  race  as  embodied  or  preserved  in  its 
literature,  arts,  songs,  games,  industries,  laws,  and  in- 
stitutions. 

Any  teacher  who  is  not  willing  to  use  the  broken  bits 
of  experience  contributed  by  individual  children,  and 
her  own  experience  as  a  means  of  clearing,  rectifying, 
completing,  interpreting,  and  relating  the  whole,  has 
failed  to  grasp  Froebel's  great  social  law  of  "Glied- 
ganzes,"  in  which  each  child  is  related  as  member,  and 
as  whole,  to  a  larger  whole. 

The  difficulty  seems  to  be  due  to  the  tendency  to 
treat  both  environment  and  experience  as  static;  a 
deeper  study  of  the  needs  of  the  child  would  seem  to 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  251 

indicate  the  necessity  for  deepening  and  extending 
these.  A  good  part  of  kindergarten  education  should 
be  devoted  to  the  gaining  of  new  experience  through 
first-hand  contact  with  nature,  and  with  human  acti- 
vities—  domestic,  industrial,  aesthetic,  and  religious. 
We  are  often  guilty  of  singing  about  these,  dramatiz- 
ing them,  relating  stories  of  them,  or  expressing  them 
through  hand  work,  when  what  is  needed  is  not  the 
expression  of  these  but  the  actual  experience  itself. 
More  excursions  and  gardens,  more  experiments  in 
using,  seeing,  and  participation  in  the  use  of  tools  of 
human  activity  would  lay  the  basis  for  spontaneous 
songs,  dramatizations,  and  expressions  of  these,  to- 
gether with  a  finer  appreciation  of  the  vicarious  experi- 
ence brought  to  the  child  through  stories,  song,  and 
verse. 

Granted  that  the  warp  of  the  program  must  be  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  common  experiences  of  the 
children  drawn  from  the  significant  factors  in  their 
common  environment,  yet  the  woof  must  be  furnished 
by  the  introduction  of  new  experiences  which  will 
fashion  the  new  and  the  old  into  an  organized  whole. 
A  discriminating  study  of  the  experiences  already  in 
the  possession  of  the  children  would  seem  to  point  to 
the  necessity  of  introducing  new  elements  in  order  to 
relate  or  extend  the  old  ones.  Nor  does  this  introduc- 
tion of  the  new  imply  any  necessity  of  presenting  the 
remote,  chosen  on  the  basis  of  its  supposed  superiority 
in  stirring  the  imagination.  On  the  contrary,  the  un- 
known or  unfamiliar  should  be  chosen  only  upon  condi- 
tion that  it  furnish  the  missing  link  in  completing  and 
giving  new  meaning  to  the  known  and  familiar.  A  lack 


THE  KINDERGARTEN 

such  as  this  often  exists  within  the  most  familiar  exper- 
iences of  childhood;  these  are  frequently  neither  appre- 
ciated nor  understood  because  they  are  unrelated;  the 
skillful  use  of  some  unfamiliar  factor  may  become  the 
means  of  linking  together,  interpreting,  and  unifying 
the  whole  process.  Even  here  the  unknown  is  not  the 
end  sought;  it  is  only  a  means  to  a  higher  end  to  be 
found  in  the  illumination  and  unification  it  brings  to 
bear  upon  the  disconnected  experiences  of  the  child's 
past. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  have  wrung  from  the 
child's  past  all  the  problems  it  offers  in  meaning  and 
control,  the  new  function  of  the  known  and  realized 
will  be  to  serve  as  leverage  for  gaining  some  deeper 
insight  into,  and  control  over,  the  new,  the  untried,  the 
unknown. 

We  grown  people  forget  that  subject-matter  which 
seems  dull  and  commonplace  to  us,  because  it  repre- 
sents processes  familiar  to  us  and  under  our  control, 
may  be  full  of  significance  to  the  child,  stirring  a  deep 
sense  of  wonder  when  it  offers  new  opportunities  for 
experiment  in  discovering  meanings  and  solutions. 
For  this  reason,  we  are  astonished  to  find  that  a  round 
of  action,  monotonous  to  the  adult,  may  offer  a  whole 
unexplored  world  of  romance  and  adventure  to  the 
child. 

As  the  actual  experiences  of  no  two  children  can 
possibly  be  the  same,  even  in  one  home  or  in  one  kinder- 
garten, the  skillful  teacher  not  only  weaves  the  un- 
known as  an  interpretative  factor  into  the  discon- 
nected elements  of  the  familiar,  but  also  uses  the 
known  as  a  point  of  departure  toward  the  unknown, 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  £53 

the  unfamiliar,  and  the  uumastered.  She  also  guides 
the  children  in  all  their  associations  so  that  the  partic- 
ular experience  of  any  member  of  the  group,  whether 
child  or  adult,  may  be  contributed  to  link  together 
and  make  more  complete  the  experience  of  all  the 
others,  until  a  certain  degree  of  unity  is  attained.  In 
this  way  the  experience  of  yesterday  may  be  recon- 
structed in  the  light  of  that  of  to-day,  and  this  new 
illumination  makes  it  possible  not  only  to  interpret 
the  old  by  the  new,  but  the  new  by  means  of  the  old. 
It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  this  problem 
presented  itself  to  Froebel  many  times.  A  few  quota- 
tions here  may  illustrate  this  point  and  serve  in  mak- 
ing clear  his  position  on  this  subject.  He  says:  "The 
second  remark  is  that  objects  are  here  brought  before 
the  child,  which  indeed  the  playing  adult  has  seen,  but 
which  as  yet  the  playing  child  has  not  seen  at  all. 
Though  this  is  not  to  be  scrupulously  avoided,  as  little 
is  it  to  be  thoughtlessly  carried  too  far;  kept  within 
limits,  it  justifies  itself  to  any  simple,  straightforward 
mind.  Man  has  a  peculiar  presaging  power  of  imagin- 
ation. [Therefore]  objects  not  yet  seen  in  life  by  the 
child  may  be  introduced  to  him  through  word  and 
plaything  that  represent  this  object,  but  with  the 
following  restrictions."1  Again  he  writes,  "This  is 
quite  natural,  for  the  child's  world,  from  the  remem- 
brance of  which  come  his  formations  and  his  concep- 
tions, is  at  first  principally  confined  to  house  and 
room,  table,  bench,  and  bed.  The  child  moves  from 
the  house  and  its  living  rooms,  through  kitchen  and 
cellar,  through  yard  and  garden,  to  the  wider  space 
1  Froebel,  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten,  p.  49. 


254  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

and  activity  of  the  street  and  market,  and  this  expan- 
sion of  life  is  clearly  reflected  in  the  development  of 
his  productions.  His  representations  proceed  from  his 
nearest  experiences,  and  are  intimately  connected  with 
them.  The  child  is  not  to  be  forcibly  torn  away  from 
his  inner  world  and  his  environment.  But  the  mother 
or  kindergartner  has  many  opportunities  of  correcting 
the  child's  perceptions  by  his  representations;  and  the 
amendment  will  be  gladly  accepted  by  the  child,  if  only 
they  lie  within  the  circle  of  his  experiences  and  ideas. 
As  these  building  gifts  afford  a  means  of  clearing  the 
perceptions  of  the  child,  they  give  occasion  for  extend- 
ing these  perceptions,  and  for  representing  in  their 
essential  parts,  objects  of  which  the  child  has  only 
heard."1 

Froebel's  belief  that  the  spontaneous  expressions 
and  productions  of  the  child  grow  mainly  out  of  his 
immediate  experiences  in  and  about  the  home  and 
neighborhood  is  evident  in  the  following  quotation: 
"Now,  in  the  family,  the  child  sees  the  parents  and 
other  members  of  the  family  at  work  producing,  doing 
something;  the  same  he  notices  with  adults  generally 
in  life  and  in  those  active  interests  with  which  his 
family  is  concerned.  Consequently  the  child  at  this 
stage  would  like  himself  to  represent  what  he  sees.  He 
would  like  to  represent  —  and  tries  to  do  so  —  all  he 
sees  his  parents  and  other  adults  do  and  represent  in 
work,  all  of  which  he  sees  represented  by  human  power 
and  human  skill."2 

1  Froebel,  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten,  pp.  221,  222.   (Italics 
not  author's.) 
1  Froebel,  Education  of  Man,  p.  98.   (Italics  not  author's.) 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  255 

While  home  and  neighborhood  activities  and  life  are 
rapidly  changing  from  this  ideal  simplicity  in  process 
and  product  to  the  mechanical  devices  of  modern 
industry,  —  which  obscure  and  complicate  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  simpler  and  more  obvious  domestic  and 
industrial  processes  of  an  earlier  day,  —  the  psycho- 
logical principle  underlying  this  description  of  the 
activities  of  the  child  in  relation  to  those  in  the  home 
life  of  Froebel's  day  still  holds  good.  The  principle 
involved  is  indicated  in  these  words,  "  The  child  would 
like  to  represent  what  he  sees"  This  is  true  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever. 

This  principle  represents  a  problem  increasingly 
difficult  to  apply  with  intelligence  and  wisdom  because 
the  surroundings  of  little  children  grow  more  and  more 
complex  and  obscure  in  both  meaning  and  technique 
as  civilization  advances.  Now  that  the  simple  candle 
and  lamp  have  given  place  to  the  hidden  mysteries  of 
gas  and  electricity,  the  broom  of  straw  to  the  carpet 
sweeper  and  vacuum  cleaner,  the  knocker  to  the  elec- 
tric bell,  the  open  fire  to  the  radiator,  one  can  but 
wonder  how  this  problem  is  to  be  solved  in  days  to 
come.  How  may  the  teacher  preserve  a  sane  balance 
in  making  use  of  the  tendency  of  the  child  to  reproduce 
the  complex  forms  of  civilization  by  which  he  is  sur- 
rounded without  any  understanding  of  their  hidden 
processes,  and  the  possible  necessity  of  introducing 
into  the  school  the  simpler  processes  of  an  earlier,  more 
primitive,  and  remote  civilization  to  illumine  them? 

The  subject-matter  of  the  kindergarten  program 
must  represent  the  dual  value  of  child  and  race  experi- 
ence. With  the  younger  children  a  form  of  unity, 


256  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

omitting  processes  or  involving  exceedingly  simple 
ones,  seems  to  be  all  that  is  required;  but  with  older 
children,  in  either  kindergarten  or  in  primary,  the 
processes  lying  back  of  the  product  seem  to  have  a 
fascination  which  should  be  met  by  experiment  in 
securing  them.  Professor  Sully  says,  regarding  chil- 
dren's questions,  "  From  the  first,  however,  the  '  why ' 
and  its  congeners  have  reference  to  the  causal  idea,  to 
something  which  has  brought  the  new  and  strange  into 
existence  and  made  it  what  it  is.  In  truth,  this  refer- 
ence to  origin,  to  bringing  about  or  making,  is  exceed- 
ingly prominent  in  children's  questionings.  Nothing  is 
more  interesting  to  a  child  than  the  production  of 
things.  This  inquiry  into  origin  and  mode  of  produc- 
tion starts  with  the  amiable  presupposition  that  all 
things  have  been  hand-produced  after  the  manner  of 
household  possessions.  The  world  is  a  sort  of  big 
house  where  everything  has  been  made  by  somebody, 
or  at  least  fetched  from  somewhere."1 
2.  The  principles  of  democracy  as  applied  to  the  Dela- 
tions between  the  supervising  officer  and  the  teachers 
under  supervision. 

If  we  expect  teachers  to  regard  the  individuality, 
personality,  and  initiative  of  children  as  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  the  enrichment  of  the  social  groups  in 
their  care,  it  would  seem  that  the  same  attitude  should 
be  manifested  in  the  relations  of  the  supervisor  to  the 
teachers  themselves.  The  classroom  teachers  have  a 
right  to  expect  the  supervising  officers  to  manifest  the 
same  respect  for  the  teachers'  freedom,  the  same  zeal 
in  providing  conditions  which  offer  development, 
1  Sully,  Studiet  of  Childhood,  pp.  78,  79. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  257 

health,  and  happiness  for  all  under  their  supervision, 
that  they  expect  these  teachers  to  exemplify  in  their 
relations  with  the  children  in  their  care.  If  the  class- 
room teachers  have  no  part  to  play  in  the  making  of 
programs  and  courses  of  study,  how  can  they  be  ex- 
pected to  encourage  children  to  think  with  freedom,  to 
offer  their  initiative,  their  solutions  to  group  problems? 
How  can  they  allow  children  freedom  when  a  prescribed 
result  is  demanded  of  them?  How  can  any  deep  sense 
of  responsibility  for  either  the  course  of  study  itself 
or  for  the  method  of  carrying  it  out  be  developed  if 
classroom  teachers  have  no  voice,  no  choice,  no  respon- 
sibility in  the  creation  of  the  course  of  study?  How- 
ever, while  there  seems  to  be  such  difference  of  opinion 
regarding  the  use  of  somewhat  uniform  courses  of  study 
for  the  protection  of  the  children,  even  with  deep  con- 
viction one  cannot  afford  to  be  dogmatic  until  experi- 
ments have  been  tried  with  both  methods,  and  the 
results  compared.  Quotations  for  and  against  a  some- 
what uniform  program  or  course  of  study  will  be  given 
to  illustrate  the  wide  differences  of  opinion  held  by 
able  authorities. 

The  most  noted  kindergarten  authority  in  favor  of 
using  a  somewhat  uniform  kindergarten  program  is 
Miss  Blow.  When  Courthope  Bowen,  of  England, 
criticized  the  kindergartens  of  other  countries  for  using 
the  identical  experiences,  plays,  and  games  of  Froebel's 
Mother-Play  book,  his  criticism  was  answered  in  these 
words:  "In  opposition  to  this  view,  I  hold  that 
Froebel's  games  dramatize  ideal  experiences  which  all 
children  may  and  ought  to  have,  and  that  conse- 
quently they  should  be  played  by  children  of  all 


258  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

nations,  and  all  conditions  of  life."1  An  opposing  point 
of  view  is  well  expressed  by  Mr.  James  L.  Hughes 
in  these  words:  "What  kindergartners  need  is  not  a 
unified  program,  but  specific  outlines  of  the  work  that 
should  be  accomplished  in  the  kindergarten,  and  direc- 
tive laws  for  making  programs." 

That  the  same  problem  is  under  discussion  in  ele- 
mentary supervision  is  confirmed  by  the  following 
quotation:  Dr.  Frank  McMurry  says:  "One  of  the 
leading  duties  of  higher  officers  is  to  establish  a  feeling 
of  great  freedom  among  teachers.  Superintendents, 
supervisors,  and  principals  bear  the  same  relation  to 
classroom  teachers,  touching  the  development  of  the 
personality  and  individuality  of  the  latter,  as  these 
bear  to  their  pupils.  A  somewhat  elaborate  plan  for 
the  preservation  of  the  teacher's  freedom  must  be 
formed,  corresponding  to  the  elaborate  theory  that 
guides  the  teacher  in  her  development  of  the  individ- 
uality of  pupils.  In  regard  to  the  curriculum,  the  sub- 
ject-matter should  be  outlined  for  large  units  of  time, 
or  by  terms,  rather  than  by  days,  or  weeks,  or  even 
months.  It  should  be  outlined  by  large  topics  with  com- 
paratively little  detail,  accompanied  with  a  very  clear 
statement  as  to  the  degree  of  freedom  the  teacher  is  to 
enjoy  in  eliminating  and  supplementing,  and  choosing 
equivalents  and  substitutes.  The  higher  officers  of  the 
school  should  show  the  freedom  that  is  to  be  enjoyed 
in  this  field  at  least  as  forcibly  as  they  show  the  re- 
striction." 

While  the  members  of  this  group  would  unanimously 
agree  that  to  leave  programs  to  the  unguided  initiative 
1  Blow,  Symbolic  Education,  p.  109. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  259 

and  judgment  of  the  individual  kindergartner  would 
be  an  equally  serious  error,  they  do  believe  that  there 
is  here  again  a  via  media  which  avoids  the  grave  con- 
sequences resulting  from  holding  extreme  views  in 
favor  of  either  theory. 

m 

The  third  problem  in  the  construction  of  a  course  of 
study  demands  a  thorough  consideration  of  the  prin- 
ciples involved  in  the  coordination  or  correlation  of 
the  impulses  and  materials  entering  into  its  organiza- 
tion. 

The  variety  of  impulses  and  materials  involved  in 
the  construction  of  a  modern  course  of  study  demands 
an  organization  which  makes  for  economy  of  effort 
and  the  elimination  of  waste.  In  some  way  the  experi- 
ence and  knowledge,  won  through  the  activity  of  one 
impulse,  should  be  related  to  that  achieved  by  another. 

Correlation  grew  into  a  conscious  problem  in  the 
elementary  school  when  the  course  of  study  became 
enriched  through  the  rapid  introduction  of  a  variety 
of  subjects,  such  as  nature  study,  manual  training, 
art,  etc.  The  relation  of  the  three  Rs  was  a  simple  mat- 
ter compared  with  the  complexity  and  overcrowding  ^ 
which  resulted  when  the  so-called  "fads  and  frills  of 
the  new  education"  were  introduced. 

As  each  new  subject  which  was  admitted  into  the 
curriculum  was  evaluated  according  to  its  ability  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  developing  individual  and  social 
life,  it  was  felt  that  simplicity  could  not  be  secured 
through  the  elimination  of  any  of  the  subjects  them- 
selves. A  proposal  to  eliminate  any  one  of  these  in- 


260  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

variably  met  with  a  storm  of  protest  from  enthusi- 
asts. 

If  no  one  of  the  subjects  could  be  withdrawn  without 
individual  and  social  loss,  there  was  but  one  remaining 
method  by  which  simplification  could  be  accomplished 
and  this  was  soon  discovered.  It  was  observed  that 
when  any  two  subjects  were  related  in  an  organic  way 
there  was  immediate  gam  in  the  reduction  of  friction 
and  complexity.  The  more  the  studies  reinforced  each 
other,  while  still  preserving  their  individuality,  the 
greater  the  simplification  of  the  whole.  Many  serious 
blunders  were  made  in  trying  to  treat  the  course  of 
study  as  an  organic  unity. 

If  the  course  of  study  may  be  compared  to  an 
organism  of  which  the  different  subjects  are  the  organs, 
one  might  carry  the  comparison  further  by  saying 
that  correlation  grew  out  of  the  necessity  of  treating 
the  subjects  from  the  physiological  rather  than  from 
the  anatomical  point  of  view. 

This  organization  or  correlation  of  impulses  with 
their  corresponding  materials  has  two  aspects.  First, 
each  impulse  must  be  seen  as  a  developing  activity, 
as  a  process  beginning  with  crude  results  in  its  first 
efforts  to  respond  to  the  stimulus  of  materials  especially 
adapted  to  its  development  in  early  life.  More  and 
more  we  are  coming  to  realize  that  a  wide  knowledge 
of  materials  themselves  —  materials  in  matured  forms 
-  is  necessary  to  guide  wisely  and  economically  the 
first  attempts  of  the  child  to  express  his  impulses 
through  the  medium  of  materials. 

These  more  ideal  goals  or  higher  levels  of  achieve- 
ment serve  as  standards  toward  which  impulses  must 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  261 

be  guided  even  in  their  crudest  beginnings.  An  aim 
like  this  demands  of  the  teacher  not  only  a  knowledge 
of  beginnings,  and  standards  or  ideal  ends,  but  that 
knowledge  of  the  developing  child  which  will  make  it 
possible  for  the  teacher  to  know  just  what  kind  of 
material  and  what  mode  of  expression  represents  the 
maximum  efficiency  of  the  child  at  any  given  stage  of 
growth. 

The  second  aspect  of  the  problem  of  correlation 
requires  a  diligent  search  for  a  natural  basis  of  unity 
to  be  found  in  and  among  the  varied  native  impulses 
and  the  materials  which  they  require  for  growth.  In 
other  words,  there  is  not  only  a  natural  tendency  for 
the  impulses  in  their  lower  stages  to  reach  upward  or 
toward  their  more  ideal  ends,  but  for  one  impulse  to 
reinforce  or  function  in  the  achievements  of  another. 

The  problem,  then,  is  to  find  some  natural  basis  of 
unity  in  and  among  the  native  tendencies  with  their 
corresponding  materials  or  subjects,  which,  while  leav- 
ing ample  room  for  the  predisposition  of  one  impulse 
to  reinforce  another,  shall  be  so  elastic  and  flexible  as 
to  provide  the  fullest  and  freest  development  possible 
to  all  the  individual  impulses  entering  into  the  organ- 
ization. If  the  attainments  of  any  one  impulse  are 
unduly  sacrificed  to  any  other,  or  to  the  whole,  the 
true  principle  of  correlation,  or  organization,  is  vio- 
lated. 

If  the  unripe  fruits  of  creativity  in  the  early  life  of 
the  child  are  not  cultivated  in  the  light  of  the  promise 
of  full-grown  possibilities  in  later  life,  there  is  neces- 
sarily wasted  energy,  dissipated  effort,  and  arrested 
development.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  creative 


262  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

impulses  are  not  studied  in  the  psychological  relation 
(the  physiological  versus  the  anatomical),  that  is,  in 
their  normal  interaction,  we  have  as  a  result  an  iso- 
lated sequence  of  achievements. 

Here  we  have  a  sequence  in  technique  secured  at 
the  cost  of  the  content  or  meaning  which  the  experience 
won  by  one  impulse  expresses  through  the  activities 
of  another.  For  instance,  the  experience  a  child  gains 
from  an  excursion  to  the  garden,  park,  or  blacksmith 
shop  tends  to  pour  itself  out  through  the  medium  of 
language,  drawing,  or  dramatization.  In  this  expres- 
sion the  logical  technique  or  grammar  of  expression  is 
subordinated  to  the  mode  of  telling.  This  principle 
seems  to  be  violated  in  the  use  of  the  sequences  in  the 
technique  and  logical  development  of  material  exem- 
plified in  the  so-called  "schools  of  work"  or  "occupa- 
tions" passed  on  by  tradition  from  the  days  of  Froebel. 
For  example,  no  child  would  spontaneously  isolate  the 
technique  of  drawing  from  social  meaning  in  any 
fashion  such  as  the  Froebelian  school  of  drawing  would 
seem  to  prescribe.  The  impulse  to  draw  is  used  by  the 
child,  in  the  main,  as  a  medium  for  telling  the  social 
experience  gained  in  life.  This  is  not  peculiar  to  this 
mode  of  expression,  but  rather  seems  to  be  a  principle 
controlling  development  through  all  modes  of  expres- 
sion. While  the  child  has  a  native  love  of  arrangement, 
to  separate  content  from  form,  as  is  frequently  done 
in  the  use  of  the  gifts  and  occupations  of  the  kinder- 
garten, seems  to  be  a  violation  not  only  of  Froebel's 
law  of  organic  unity,  but  of  the  normal  relation  between 
idea  and  technique. 

This  separation  of  content  and  technique  has  arisen 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  263 

through  what  appears  to  be  a  dualistic  interpretation 
of  the  place  and  function  of  the  sciences  and  humani- 
ties in  the  development  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 
While  it  is  granted  that,  as  certain  subjects  in  the 
curriculum  ally  themselves  more  easily  and  naturally 
with  one  group  of  subjects  than  with  others,  this  must 
be  respected,  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  they  are 
one  in  their  common  origin  and  aim.  In  other  words, 
they  arose  in  social  life,  and  differentiated  in  obedience 
to  the  law  of  division  of  labor  in  meeting  varying  as- 
pects of  social  experiences.  While  all  subjects  must 
be  studied  in  the  light  of  their  common  social  origin 
and  aim,  it  is  equally  important  that  they  be  carefully 
examined  in  the  light  of  their  individual  differences  in 
meeting  human  need  through  obedience  to  the  law  of 
division  of  labor.  In  this  sense  one  fails  to  secure  the 
finest  results  from  either  the  sciences  or  humanities  if 
these  are  treated  as  identical  in  their  contribution  to 
social  necessity.  While  it  is  accepted  that  all  studies 
are  one  in  their  social  origin  and  aim,  the  contribution 
to  social  life  differs  with  each,  if  it  is  to  meet  the  special 
human  need  which  gave  rise  to  it.  While  we  must  avoid 
the  pitfalls  which  inevitably  beset  the  pathway  when 
one  pursues  the  dangerous  method  of  arguing  from 
social  origins  and  racial  modes  of  thinking  to  those  fol- 
lowed by  the  individual  child  of  to-day  in  an  alto- 
gether different  social  and  natural  situation,  there  still 
seems  to  be  an  element  of  danger  in  the  theory  that 
the  subjects  of  the  curriculum  are  "  mutually  repellent. " 
When  Miss  Blow  draws  our  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Herbart  saw  the  subjects  of  the  course  of  study  fall 
"into  two  main  lines,  the  one  for  understanding,  the 


2C4  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

other  for  feeling  and  imagination,"  she  says,  "In  this 
division  he  clearly  recognizes  an  important  difference 
between  scientific  and  humane  subjects.  Defining  this 
difference  more  closely,  we  become  aware  of  a  momen- 
tous contrast  between  physical  nature  and  human 
nature,  and  realize  that  science  and  the  humanities 
must  differ  in  their  aim  and  method,  in  the  forms  of 
mental  activity  to  which  they  appeal,  in  the  convic- 
tions to  which  they  give  birth,  in  the  practical  solutions 
of  social  problems  which  they  suggest,  and  in  the 
'emotional  undertones  which  they  create.'  "  l 

Any  mode  of  correlation  which  fails  to  discover  the 
peculiar  contribution  of  each  subject  to  social  life  will 
result  in  an  attempt  to  force  some  or  all  of  the  different 
creative  activities  to  achieve  the  same  end.  This  would 
sacrifice  the  individuality  and  development  of  the 
varied  impulses,  and  distort  the  products  they  are  des- 
tined to  achieve  and  contribute  to  the  school  and 
society.  The  kindergarten  has  made  many  mistakes  in 
its  efforts  to  correlate  the  subject-matter  of  the  pro- 
gram. One  group  of  kindergartners,  treating  the  gifts 
and  occupations  as  one  aspect  of  science  (science  being 
interpreted  as  the  medium  through  which  man  has 
gained  control  over  physical  nature),  has  isolated 
these  from  the  songs,  games,  and  stories  which  are 
related  to  a  "pattern  experience"  selected  from  Froe- 
bel's  Mother-Play  Book. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  where  the  most  serious  blunders 

have  been  made,  by  conservatives  or  progressives  in 

the  kindergarten,  or  the  elementary  school.  In  the  early 

attempts  to  correlate  the  gifts  and  occupations,  the 

1  Blow,  Educational  Issues  in  the  Kindergarten,  p.  20. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  £65 

form  produced  in  the  gifts  was  reproduced  in  the 
occupation  in  a  more  "permanent"  form,  the  only 
difference  in  result  being  due  to  the  characteristics  of 
the  two  materials.  In  this  way  the  correlation  was 
made  through  the  common  medium  of  form.  For  ex- 
ample, if  the  tablets  were  used  at  the  gift  period, 
parquetry  repeated  the  geometric  form  for  an  occupa- 
tion. Later  in  kindergarten  history,  kindergartners 
endeavored  to  correct  this  external  conception  of  cor- 
relation, and  as  usual  the  reform  movement  fell  into  an 
error,  as  evident  from  another  point  of  view  as  the  one 
it  sought  to  rectify.  In  the  attempt  to  reform  a  correl- 
ation based  on  geometrical  relationships  between  the 
gifts  and  occupations,  the  reformers  sought  correlation 
through  the  repetition  of  the  same  "  subject,"  "  idea,"  or 
"  topic."  This  was  made  central  and  repeated  through 
as  many  channels  of  expression  as  possible.  For  exam- 
ple, if  one  made  a  house  with  the  blocks,  it  must  be 
followed  by  a  drawing,  a  parquetry  or  cardboard 
house.  This  mistaken  notion  of  correlation  resulted  in 
a  dreary  round  of  activities  in  which  the  teacher 
endeavored  to  repeat  through  morning  talk,  games, 
stories,  songs,  gifts,  and  occupations, the  same  "idea," 
"subject,"  "topic,"  or  "thought"  for  the  day.  Miss 
Blow  in  the  following  passage  ably  criticizes  this 
method,  which  really  used  materials  to  illustrate  ideas 
in  the  teacher's  mind,  rather  than  as  a  means  of  express- 
ing and  clarifying  the  ideas  in  the  child's  mind,  which 
he  is  spontaneously  endeavoring  to  bring  to  conscious- 
ness through  play.  "What  becomes  of  that  cardinal 
principle  of  progressive  pedagogy  that  'in  the  begin- 
ning is  the  act,'  if  children  may  not  act  until  their 


266  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

minds  have  been  filled  by  the  kindergartner  with  a 
thought  content?"  l 

A  criticism  which  might  be  added  is  that  this  is  not 
an  expression  of  experience  which  the  children  have 
gained  from  their  social  environment  and  are  attempt- 
ing to  clarify  and  make  their  own  through  play,  but  an 
illustration  of  a  vicarious  experience  or  idea  in  the  mind 
of  the  teacher,  or  secured  from  literature,  which  is 
forced  into  as  many  modes  of  expression  as  possible. 
These  offenses  against  the  true  principle  of  organiza- 
tion were  common  to  both  the  kindergarten  and  the 
school  at  this  period,  though  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  the  elementary  school  has  solved  the  problem  more 
successfully  than  the  kindergarten  has. 

One  cause  of  the  difficulty  grew  out  of  an  inability  to 
trace  the  materials  back  to  a  past  common  origin  in 
social  necessity,  and  to  their  present  need  in  the  social 
life  of  the  child  and  adult  society.  The  subjects  were 
viewed  as  separate  entities,  and  instead  of  studying  the 
actual  relations  existing  between  them  in  past  and  pres- 
ent civilization  and  that  of  the  social  experience  of  the 
child  of  to-day,  they  were  placed  in  artificial  connec- 
tions and  "tied  together"  by  some  ingenious,  unnatu- 
ral device  discovered  by  the  teacher.  This  artificial 
unity  often  made  use  of  the  most  extraneous,  far- 
fetched, and  even  ludicrous  relationships.  As  soon  as 
we  see  the  instincts  of  the  child  and  the  race  in  subject- 
matter,  viewing  it  as  the  record  of  these  at  work  upon 
an  environment  natural  and  social,  these  mistakes 
disappear. 

The  trend  of  thought  in  modern  elementary  educa- 
1  Blow,  Educational  Issues  in  the  Kindergarten,  p.  8. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  2G7 

tion  is  to  treat  the  different  studies  and  materials  of 
the  course  of  study  as  parts  of  an  original  unity  to  be 
found  in  the  social  life  in  which  they  not  only  came 
into  existence,  but  in  which  they  came  to  differentiate 
because  of  some  function  which  they  fulfilled  in  society. 

This  earlier  problem  of  correlation  falls  into  the 
background,  or  rather  seems  to  take  care  of  itself,  when 
the  unity  of  the  curriculum  is  found  in  the  unity  of 
human  experience,  or  the  unity  of  social  life  which 
the  curriculum  represents.  As  Dr.  Dewey  expresses  it, 
"Each  study  stands  for  one  differentiated  phase  of 
social  life,  and  the  problem  of  correlation  is  to  make 
studies  act  and  react  upon  each  other  in  the  same  way 
in  school  that  the  processes  for  which  they  stand  do  in 
actual  life.  .  .  .  Conceive  it  [the  curriculum]  as  im- 
bedded in  social  life  —  taken  out  of  its  social  setting  for 
the  sake  of  going  back  into  it  —  by  making  life  richer, 
more  sympathetic,  and  more  comprehensive."  Thus, 
one  might  add,  the  problem  seems  largely  reversed 
by  modern  educational  thought.  The  old  problem  of 
correlation  —  how  can  we  unify  or  correlate  studies 
which  originally  exist  as  separate  entities  —  has  given 
place  to  the  new  problem  —  how  do  the  separate 
studies  differentiate  out  of  an  original  unity  in  social 
life,  and  how  may  we  preserve,  in  the  curriculum  and 
the  school,  both  the  mode  of  differentiation  and  the  unifi- 
cation found  in  the  social  life  which  they  represent? 

The  mistakes  made  by  the  kindergarten,  in  treating 
the  impulses  and  materials  as  unrelated  both  to  each 
other  and  to  the  social  life  out  of  which  they  have 
emerged,  resulted  in  isolated,  meaningless  sequences  of 
form,  without  social  content  or  function  —  each  step 


268  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

bearing  a  relation  inform  and  process,  or  technique,  to 
that  which  preceded  and  that  which  followed,  but  hold- 
ing no  relationship  to  the  achievements  and  interpre- 
tations of  the  other  impulses,  or  to  the  function  of  each 
in  social  life;  while  in  the  equally  unfortunate  mistake 
made  in  attempting  to  find  the  relation  between  the 
impulses  themselves  and  their  function  in  achieving 
and  interpreting  human  experience,  we  have  such  evi- 
dences of  correlation  carried  to  the  extreme,  as  is  so 
well  criticized  by  Miss  Blow  in  her  chapter  on  the 
"Concentric  Program."  l 

While  it  is  acknowledged,  however,  that  the  "Con- 
centric Program"  had  faults  as  serious  as  the  isolation 
of  subject-matter  which  it  made  an  attempt  to  remedy, 
it  was  a  most  effective  stepping-stone  in  bringing 
meaning  and  thought  into  the  technique  and  instru- 
mentalities of  the  kindergarten  and  the  primary  school. 

If  the  kindergarten  program  may  be  compared  to  an 
organism  where  the  life  of  the  whole  depends  upon  the 
contribution  of  each  member  and  the  interaction  be- 
tween the  individual  members,  we  have  a  complex  or- 
ganization which  would  make  it  impossible  to  withdraw 
the  contribution  of  any  one  of  the  parts  without  serious 
loss  to  all  the  others  and  the  organism  as  a  whole.  When 
this  principle  of  organization  is  applied  to  the  kinder- 
garten, it  would  seem  to  indicate  that  all  the  constitu- 
ent impulses,  with  their  corresponding  materials  which 
enter  into  its  organization,  should  in  turn  receive  their 
emphasis  and  their  fullest  development,  being  at  the 
same  time  enriched  and  reinforced  by  experience 
gained  through  all  of  the  others.  The  necessity  for 
1  Blow,  Educational  Issues  in  the  Kindergarten. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  269 

continuity  —  for  increasing  complexity  in  content, 
technique,  and  form  —  is  the  sequence  which  we  should 
strive  to  preserve. 

All  early  attempts  to  secure  a  steady  progress  in 
technique,  whether  in  reading,  writing,  mathematics, 
manual  training,  gifts,  or  occupations,  substituted  the 
logical  for  the  psychological.  Professor  Leonard  Wahl- 
strom  thus  describes  the  mistake  made  when  introduc- 
ing manual  training  into  the  schools:  "When  manual 
training  first  found  a  place  in  the  school,  it  was  the 
physical  side  which  predominated,  in  definite  courses 
of  models  and  exercises."  W.  A.  Baldwin  classifies  the 
use  of  materials  and  manual  training  in  the  schools 
under  three  types.  The  first  he  describes  as,  "schools 
where  an  elaborate,  well-defined  course  of  study  is 
marked  out  in  a  perfectly  logical  fashion  with  its  regular 
set  objects  to  be  made.  The  place  of  each  piece  of  work 
in  such  a  course  of  study  is  determined  by  its  relation 
to  what  follows,  so  that  the  difficulties  of  technique 
may  be  gradually  approached.  The  followers  of  Froebel 
have  gotten  manual  training  of  this  type.  To  my  mind 
nothing  can  be  further  from  the  real  spirit  of  Froebel." 

Is  not  that  progress  or  continuity,  in  both  apprecia- 
tion and  control,  —  for  which  sequence  in  its  best  sense 
stands,  —  equally  important  in  the  use  of  songs,  games, 
and  stories  as  in  .the  gifts  and  occupations?  While  the 
necessity  for  sequence  or  progress  in  these  materials 
is  much  less  apparent,  is  it  any  the  less  important, 
because  more  difficult  to  discover  and  realize?  It  is 
readily  conceded  that  it  is  far  easier  to  correlate  songs, 
stories,  and  games  without  any  apparent  sacrifice  in  the 
progress  and  development  of  each,  to  the  others,  and 


270  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

to  the  whole;  but  would  not  a  deeper  insight  into  the 
problem  of  true  organization  or  correlation  reveal  the 
same,  though  more  subtle  and  hidden  necessity  for 
sequence  or  continuity  of  development  in  technique 
in  these?  The  time  has  passed  when  we  can  hope  to 
have  slovenly  thinking  solve  so  delicate  a  problem. 

Thoughtful  kindergartners  must  discriminate  be- 
tween the  external  correlation  of  impulses  and  mater- 
ials based  upon  ingenious  relations  revolving  around 
some  center  arbitrarily  selected  by  the  teacher,  and  the 
true  unity  existing  among  the  impulses  and  their  cor- 
responding materials  as  found  in  child  nature  and  in 
life.  In  such  an  organization  of  materials  as  the  latter, 
the  unity  is  true  to  life  because  each  impulse  is  con- 
tributing to  the  whole  through  preserving  its  own  indi- 
viduality and  development.  These  are  related  in  a 
larger  unity,  which  is  made  up  of  a  variety  of  impulses 
and  materials,  in  which  no  one  attempts  to  repeat  the 
achievements  of  the  other,  but  accomplishes  for  the 
whole  what  no  other  could  contribute.  Thus  nature 
work  may  naturally  reinforce  or  function  in  the  art- 
work or  occupations,  while  contributing  something 
essentially  different;  or,  the  occupation  may  contri- 
bute to  the  game  or  the  pageant  in  which  it  finds  its 
motive  or  function ;  for  example,  kites  for  experiment 
with  the  wind  in  nature  study,  flags  for  marching,  May 
baskets  for  the  celebration  of  May  Day,  etc. 

We  have  in  all  courses  of  study  an  attempt  to  stim- 
ulate some  form  of  related  thinking,  though  the  type 
of  correlation  varies  according  to  the  theory  of  the 
thinker  who  plans  it.  In  a  study  of  this  problem,  made 
by  Dr.  Judd,  he  points  out  two  typical  methods.  He 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  271 

describes  at  length  the  logical  relationships  of  facts  and 
principles  as  they  exist  within  the  subject  itself,  and 
contrasts  with  these  the  examples  found  in  the  applica- 
tions of  these  in  social  life.  Both,  he  claims,  are  the 
results  of  related  thinking  and  correlation,  though 
adherents  of  the  latter  method,  he  tells  us,  fail  to  see  it 
as  such.  "The  interesting  fact  about  many  discussions 
of  correlation  is  that  the  obvious  lines  of  correlation 
just  described  are  ignored.  To  many  thinkers  correla- 
tion of  number  facts  means  the  taking  of  these  facts 
out  of  their  arithmetical  connection  and  the  placing  of 
them  in  some  other  connection.  Thus  the  fraction  \  is 
part  of  a  number  scheme.  It  may  be  also  a  part  of  a 
cooking  lesson,  as  when  one  wishes  to  divide  a  cupful 
or  a  quart  into  equal  parts.  Many  thinkers  would 
regard  it  as  a  true  example  of  correlation  to  bring  the 
fraction  \  into  the  cooking  lesson,  but  would  fail  to 
recognize  that  there  is  just  as  much  correlation  in 
relating  \  to  \  or  \.  .  .  .  For  the  purpose  of  defining 
the  two  types  of  connection  which  have  been  under 
discussion  in  the  foregoing  examples,  let  us  speak  of 
longitudinal  correlations  and  transverse  correlations. 
The  following  diagram  will  illustrate  what  is  meant  by 
the  terms  longitudinal  and  transverse. 

Longitudinal  —  Whole  numbers  —  Fractions  (\,  \,  J)  —  Decimals 

t?   '  .    I  I 

D       Counting  children       Use  of  rulers  Coins 


Counting  chairs    Use  of  quarts,  pints 

With  the  distinction  between  longitudinal  correlations 
and  transverse  correlations  clearly  in  mind,  it  will 


272  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

readily  be  seen  that  the  longitudinal  connections  are 
much  more  systematic  and  orderly  while  the  trans- 
verse connections  are  illustrative  and  concrete."  l 

While  the  kindergartners  cooperating  in  this  report 
recognize  the  value  of  both  modes  of  correlation,  we 
would  emphasize  our  faith  in  the  fact  that  with  the 
younger  children  we  believe  that  the  social  associa- 
tions predominate.  The  child  lives  in  an  environment 
in  which  the  relations  are  largely  social.  He  sees  and 
feels  personally  regarding  these  facts,  and  he  comes  to 
see  them  abstractly  and  logically  after  he  has  become 
somewhat  familiar  with  them  in  their  social  connections. 

The  straight  and  narrow  path  which  excludes  neither 
of  these  modes  of  relating  experience,  while  throwing 
the  emphasis  upon  that  which  offers  the  best  key  to 
child  thought,  is  difficult,  indeed,  to  find.  Serious  con- 
sequences follow  the  total  exclusion  of  either.  For 
example,  if  programs  and  courses  of  study  are  based 
upon  the  longitudinal  type  of  correlation  exclusively, 
we  have  as  a  result  an  accumulation  of  knowledge 
based  upon  more  or  less  abstract  qualities  and  logical 
relations  within  the  subject  itself,  plus  a  technique 
acquired  by  a  method  absolutely  contrary  to  the  more 
normal  process  which  life  offers  for  the  acquisition  of 
these.  Here  the  child  has  secured  both  knowledge  and 
technique,  not  only  without  social  meaning,  but  if  the 
experiments  in  modern  psychology  along  the  line  of  the 
doctrine  of  "formal  discipline"  be  at  all  trustworthy, 
we  have  slight  basis  for  any  faith  in  his  ability  to  apply 
these  in  the  solution  of  social  problems. 

1  Judd,  "Types  of  Correlation,"  Elementary  School  Teacher,  Sep- 
tember, 1911. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  273 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  transverse  mode  of  correla- 
tion is  used  at  the  cost  of  the  longitudinal,  some  of 
the  following  errors  seem  inevitable.  In  the  first  place, 
either  a  poor  selection  of  materials  may  be  presented, 
in  songs,  games,  stories,  et  cetera,  chosen  because  they 
illustrate  or  correlate  with  the  thought  or  topic  chosen 
for  the  day;  or,  if  good  materials  are  selected,  their  ex- 
cuse for  use  is  found  in  some  far-fetched,  extraneous,  or 
ridiculous  relation  to  the  subject,  which  is  invented  by 
the  ingenious  teacher  because  of  her  blindness  to  the 
true  relations  existing  in  human  experience. 

Another  consequence  of  the  exclusive  use  of  trans- 
verse connections  is  found  in  the  tendency  to  ignore 
the  problem  of  how  to  secure  a  gradual  growth  in  ex- 
pression, or  a  steady  progress  in  mastery  of  technique. 
The  so-called  "sequences"  in  all  of  the  earlier  uses  of 
the  gifts  and  occupations  were  efforts  to  solve  this  prob- 
lem of  growth  in  skill.  Unfortunate  as  these  isolated, 
meaningless  exercises  in  skill  were,  they  were  no  more 
unfortunate  than  some  of  the  efforts  made  by  the 
reformers  who  frequently  ignored  the  problem  alto- 
gether. In  these  attempts  at  reform  the  problems  pre- 
sented were,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  suggested  by 
some  thought  associated  with  the  "topic"  for  the  day. 
The  technique  or  control  of  materials  involved  in 
solving  the  problem  often  presented  a  difficulty  too 
arduous  and  complex  for  mastery  to-day,  or  too  easily 
mastered  to-morrow  to  call  forth  the  child's  best  effort. 

In  the  mistakes  made  by  both  types  of  correlation, 
the  free,  spontaneous  expression  of  the  child  may  be      *^ 
inhibited.  Both  impose  adult  modes  of  thinking  upon 
him.   In  one  case  it  is  the  imposition  of  an  abstract 


274  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

logical  technique  which  kills  the  spontaneous  expres- 
sion; in  the  other,  it  is  the  imposition  of  an  idea  or 
subject  which  the  teacher  has  forced  upon  the  child 
through  some  artificial  mode  of  expression. 

'The  golden  mean,  the  via  media,  which  seeks  to  find 
the  degree  to  which  both  of  these  types  of  thinking  are 
characteristic  of  the  child  mind,  is  not  only  the  test  of 
a  good  course  of  study,  but  of  the  highest  of  all  arts 
—  the  art  of  teaching. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that  neither  transverse 
nor  longitudinal  connections,  neither  isolation  nor  uni- 
fication, should  serve  as  a  single  aim  in  the  construc- 
tion of  a  program  or  course  of  study,  but  rather  both 
differentiation  and  unification  when  seen  as  two  stages 
in  the  one  process  of  development  through  which  the 
mind  passes,  —  first,  in  an  attempt  to  break  up  the 
naive  and  unconscious  unity  in  which  the  child  finds 
the  materials  of  social  life;  and  second,  the  desire  to 
consciously  rebuild  or  reconstruct  the  original  unity  in 
which  the  constituent  materials  of  the  course  of  study 
exist  in  social  experience. 

Just  as  the  mind  plies  between  the  processes  of 
analysis  and  synthesis,  deduction  and  induction,  so  it 
finds  the  necessity  for  both  differentiation  and  unifica- 
tion in  its  efforts  to  define  and  control  human  experi- 
ence. 

The  kindergarten  program  will  grow  in  value  as 
our  vision  of  life  and  our  insight  into  the  meaning  of 
education  deepen  and  broaden.  It  will  be  altered  from 
year  to  year  by  reflection  upon  what  we  have  at- 
tempted, and  what  we  have  accomplished.  Out  of  this 
will  come  a  new  vision,  a  higher  standard  which  will 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  275 

enable  us  to  reconstruct  and  create  newer  and  more 
ideal  courses  of  study  for  the  children  of  the  future. 

If  the  school,  the  college,  and  the  university  are 
still  pursuing  their  quest  for  more  ideal  curricula  from 
year  to  year,  the  kindergarten,  too,  must  endeavor 
to  "better  its  best"  if  it  is  to  survive  and  to  contribute 
its  quota  to  the  whole. 


PART  II 

ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  PRACTICE 

IN  this  section  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  illumi- 
nate the  preceding  section  on  theory  with  a  non- 
technical statement  of  the  practice  of  which  it  is  an 
application. 

In  the  preceding  section  three  fundamental  problems 
are  given  as  of  prime  importance  in  the  planning  of 
a  kindergarten  program,  or  a  course  of  study.  I.  The 
selection  of  the  native  tendencies  of  childhood  which 
make  for  the  development  of  the  individual  and  the 
advancement  of  civilization.  II.  The  selection  of  the 
best  subject-matter  or  materials  for  the  creative  im- 
pulses to  act  upon  and  react  toward.  III.  The  organi- 
zation, arrangement,  or  correlation  of  subject-matter 
or  materials  in  such  a  unity  as  makes  for  economy  and 
simplicity,  while  leaving  ample  opportunity  for  the 
fullest  development  and  richest  achievements  of  all 
the  impulses  entering  into  the  organization. 

As  the  last  problem  was  more  fully  illustrated  than 
were  the  first  and  second,  an  attempt  will  be  made  to 
present  some  of  the  most  evident  native  tendencies  or 
impulses  which  should  be  selected  in  the  organization 
of  a  program  or  course  of  study,  together  with  the  sub- 
ject-matter or  materials  which  the  kindergarten,  the 
school,  and  social  life  offer  for  their  development. 

This  is  not  intended  to  serve  as  an  exhaustive  list  of 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  277 

instincts,  social  needs,  and  materials,  but  rather  as  a 
suggestive  one  which  may  stimulate  study  and  criti- 
cism. 


Native  tendencies,  impulses  or 
social  need  of  children  to  be  met 
in  planning  a  course  of  study. 

To  make,  construct,  or  control. 


To  nurture,  protect,  and  control. 


To  investigate,  explore,  and  6nd 
out.  (This  also  a  motive  and 
method  which  enters  into  the 
exercise  of  all  impulses.) 

To  tell  or  communicate. 


To  adorn,  decorate,  arrange,  or 
beautify. 

To  transmit,  record,  interpret, 
and  make  permanent  valuable 
experiences. 

To  cooperate  and  compete  with 
other  selves. 


Materials  or  subject-matter,  pro- 
vided by  the  kindergarten,  the 
school,  and  society  to  meet  these. 

Gifts,  occupations,  manual  train- 
ing, and  industry. 

Care  of  plants,  animals,  dolls, 
younger  children,  and  room. 

Nature  study,  science,  excursion, 
commerce,  and  industry. 


Conversation,  gesture,  dramati- 
zation, song,  writing. 

Art,  design,  dance. 
Literature,  song,  art,  history. 


Dramatic  games  and  dances, 
games  of  skill,  work,  festivals 
and  ceremonials. 


To  measure,  calculate,  compute,    Mathematics,       standards      of 
and  make  accurate.  weight,  measurement,  counting, 

etc. 

To  wonder,  aspire,  worship,  or    Religion  or  worship, 
commune. 

To    cooperate,    formulate,    and    Laws  and  institutions, 
preserve  social  experience. 

While  all  these  are  but  different  aspects  of  self- 
activity,  creating  its  own  ways  and  means  of  satisfy- 
ing human  need,  those  which  seem  to  be  central  are 


S78  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

the  relation  of  man  to  nature,  to  his  fellow  man,  and 
to  God.  These  are  the  three  great  elemental  experi- 
ences of  man  —  the  central  factors  in  human  life  — 
all  the  so-called  subjects  in  the  course  of  study  or 
program,  being  ways  and  means  by  which  these  are 
investigated,  elucidated,  computed,  communicated, 
interpreted,  recorded,  regulated,  controlled,  and  pre- 
served. If  this  is  accepted,  it  follows  that  the  function 
of  each  subject  in  the  program  or  curriculum  must  be 
studied  in  the  light  of  its  individual  or  peculiar  contri- 
bution to  human  experience  through  some  one  of  these 
channels. 

The  relation  of  man  to  man  is  the  one  in  which  the 
child  is  first  interested  —  the  one  which  may  most 
easily  be  brought  to  his  consciousness.  As  civilization 
advances,  the  child's  adaptations  to  nature  are  more 
and  more  made  for  him  by  adult  society.  It  is  adult 
society  which  looks  in  advance  of  the  actual  need  for 
food,  clothing,  shelter,  fuel,  etcetera,  and  provides  these 
for  its  helpless,  immature  members.  While  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  child  is  in  close  relation  to  God  from 
the  first,  he  is  unconscious  of  this,  and  gradually 
grows  into  a  realization  of  the  unseen  tie  through  the 
more  tangible  relation  with  man  and  nature. 

NATURE   STUDY 

The  child  makes  many,  if  not  most,  of  his  adapta- 
tions to  humanity  for  himself,  and  learns  in  the  first 
few  months  of  his  baby  existence  whether  he  is  to  con- 
trol or  to  be  controlled  by  adult  society.  He  adapts 
himself  accordingly.  Nature  is  in  the  background  of 
his  consciousness,  and  it  soon  becomes  a  setting  for 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  279 

human  activity  which  is  for  him  the  matter  of  supreme 
moment.  To  primitive  man  it  was  the  source  of  supply 
for  food,  clothing,  fuel,  shelter,  tools,  and  weapons, 
but  to  win  these  he  early  learned  that  in  order  to  gain 
control  over  nature  he  must  first  adapt  himself  to 
nature.  It  aroused  curiosity  and  provoked  the  investi- 
gation and  research  of  science,  commerce,  and  indus- 
try; it  inspired  the  wonder,  awe,  aspiration,  and 
reverence  of  religion;  it  stimulated  the  fancy,  and  the 
imagination  of  literature,  and  the  love  of  beauty  in 
art.  But  the  child  of  to-day  has  few  opportunities  to 
adapt  himself  to  nature,  as  civilization  steps  in  and 
makes  this  adaptation  for  him. 

As  the  race  came  to  nature  consciousness  through 
first-hand  contact  with  nature  in  its  relation  to  hu- 
man needs,  whether  domestic,  industrial,  aesthetic,  or 
religious,  so  the  child  must  come  to  consciousness  of 
needs  in  his  life  which  nature  alone  can  supply. 

Nature-subjects  must  be  selected  in  relation  to  hu- 
man needs,  through  direct  contact  with  it,  through 
the  method  of  experiment.  Little  children  need  nature 
experience  and  nature  wonder  and  nature  play  as  a 
basis  for  later  nature  study,  and  nature  work. 

If  this  principle  is  applied  in  practice,  it  rules  out  of 
the  program  and  course  of  study  much  of  the  unrelated 
nature  work  now  being  used  in  the  kindergarten  and 
primary  school.  The  central  interest  in  child  life  is  not 
what  nature  is  doing,  but  what  man  is  doing. 

The  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  the  wind,  rain,  and  snow 
are  very  personal  matters  to  the  young  child,  and  this 
personal  relation  should  be  respected  and  utilized  as 
the  basis  for  the  more  impersonal  approach  to  science 


280  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

pure  and  simple  in  later  education.  If  the  kindergart- 
ner  would  see  to  it  that  children  are  given  every  op- 
portunity possible  to  come  into  contact  with  natural 
objects  and  forces  indoors,  in  garden-work,  and  excur- 
sions, and  through  nature-play  or  experiment,  nature 
study  and  nature-work  would  follow  more  naturally 
in  the  grades. 

Those  aspects  of  nature  which,  while  stirring  the 
child's  imagination,  are  yet  beyond  his  ability  to  ap- 
proach through  the  experimental  method,  should  be 
left  to  the  realm  of  wonder  and  fancy.  Wonder  and 
fancy  may  be  as  important  as  the  method  of  experi- 
ment in  the  beginnings  of  nature  experiences. 

LITERATURE 

As  literature  arose  in  the  desire  to  interpret,  com- 
municate, and  record  some  actual  or  fanciful  experi- 
ence which  was  considered  too  important  for  the  race 
to  lose,  it  would  seem  that  with  little  children  it  must 
interpret  some  experience  of  their  own,  or  furnish  some 
desirable  experience  calculated  to  supplement  group 
life  in  an  ideal  way. 

"  Literature  is  born  when  it  becomes  possible  for  men 
to  see  that  their  experiences  have  a  value  which  goes 
beyond  their  momentary  occurrence,  and  the  moment- 
ary practical  fruits  resulting  from  them.  It  is  the 
expression  of  man's  consciousness  of  the  more  perma- 
nent and  enduring  values  of  his  experience.  Litera- 
ture is  to  be  regarded  as  a  means  of  interpreting  one's 
own  experience  through  the  reflection  back  into  it  of 
the  best  expressions  of  such  experience  proceeding  from 
others,  but  it  is  not  £o  be  treated  as  a  substitute  for 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  281 

this  experience."  If  this  statement  of  the  origin  and 
function  of  literature  is  accepted,  the  .storSLsbould  on 
the  whole  follow  and  interpret  the  experience  rather 
than  precede  and  foreshadow  it. 

While  this  principle  seems  to  limit  the  use  of  litera- 
ture, it  is  large  enough  to  include  some  realistic  stories, 
some  wonder  and  fairy  tales,  some  poems  and  rhymes; 
but  it  would  tend  to  reduce  the  multiplicity  of  stories  , 
told  in  the  kindergarten  and  primary  school,  because 
of  their  supposed  value  in  stirring  the  imagination. 

We  would  suggest  fewer  stories,  more  closely  related 
to,  and  interpretative  of,  child  life  and  child  problems, 
well  told,  and  so  frequently  told  that  the  child  comes 
to  possess  them,  not  only  in  the  content  but  in  the 
literary  form. 

GAMES 

Games  offer  the  very  best  opportunities  for  social 
cooperation  and  wholesome  social  competition. 

The  two  main  divisions  into  which  they  seem  natu- 
rally to  fall  are  the  games  of  skill,  and  dramatic  games, 
including  the  simple  and  ideal  forms  of  the  folk-game 
and  the  folk-dance. 

The  games  of  skill  include  such  spontaneous  activ- 
ities as  running,  jumping,  skipping,  leaping,  throwing, 
and  tossing,  and  often  require  some  tool  or  toy  as  the 
means  of  building  up  technique;  for  example,  balls, 
rings,  tops,  marbles,  ropes,  etcetera.  Such  games  are 
especially  valuable  from  the  standpoint  of  health, 
physical  vigor,  and  dexterity. 

The  dramatic  games  in  the  main  rehearse  or  portray 
human  activities.  They  interpret  human  relationships 
and  culminate  in  the  drama.  There  are  some  exceptions 


282  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

to  this,  such  as  the  spontaneous  dramatizations  of 
birds,  horses,  and  engines. 

The  formulated  games  should  be  evolved  from,  and 
organized  out  of,  the  spontaneous  expressions  of  human 
activities  in  somewhat  unorganized  play,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  should  be  preceded  by  the  actual  experi- 
ence of  which  they  are  dramatizations.  Again  we 
would  prescribe  fewer  and  simpler  games,  played  more 
frequently,  and  with  increasing  control  over  the  tech- 
nique involved,  rather  than  the  multiplicity  now  in  use 
in  many  kindergartens. 

MUSIC  AND   SONGS 

There  is  an  increasing  demand  for  shorter  and 
simpler  songs  for  the  kindergarten.  A  child's  song 
should  be  a  musical  embodiment  of  a  desirable  mood, 
which  poetically  interprets  and  colors  the  child's  view 
of  some  ideal  experience.  In  instrumental  music,  we 
would  urge  a  higher  standard  of  selection,  greater 
simplicity,  and  a  reduction  of  the  amount. 

There  is  undoubtedly  much  over-stimulation  of  chil- 
dren in  the  kindergartens  through  the  almost  incessant 
use  of  song  and  piano  to  accompany  every  activity. 
When  this  stimulation  is  withdrawn,  as  it  necessarily 
will  be  when  the  child  enters  the  primary  school,  he 
must  suffer  as  one  inevitably  does  when  suddenly 
deprived  of  a  stimulus  which  has  been  used  to  excess. 

We  would  again  suggest  simpler  songs,  fewer, 
shorter,  better  selected,  and  better  sung,  as  the  founda- 
tion for  later  musical  education.  The  song  is  another 
mode  of  interpreting  experience,  and  should,  on  the 
whole,  follow  or  accompany  the  experience,  helping 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  283 

the  child  to  a  new  and  more  ideal  vision  of  that  which 
he  has  experienced  in  life.  The  function  of  art  here  as 
elsewhere  might  be  expressed  in  the  words  of  Brown- 
ing,— 

"We're  made  so  that  we  love 
First  when  we  see  them  painted 
Things  we  have  passed  perhaps  a  hundred  times 
Nor  cared  to  see." 

GIFTS  AND   OCCUPATIONS 

These  are  looked  upon  as  selected  educative  materi- 
als with  which  the  children  are  to  play  and  work.  They 
have  great  social  as  well  as  scientific  and  mathematical 
values,  and  are  to  be  used  not  merely  as  a  means  of 
gaining  a  conquest  over  materials  through  a  knowledge 
of  their  qualities  and  relations,  but  as  a  means  of 
stimulating  social  comparison  and  social  cooperation 
in  work  and  play.  They  are  closely  related  to  human 
experience,  and,  from  our  point  of  view,  are  no  more 
to  be  isolated  from  this  than  the  songs,  games,  or 
stories.  Just  as  industry  and  art  grew  out  of  social 
experience  and  were  ways  and  means  of  satisfying 
human  needs,  so  the  gifts  and  occupations  to  which 
they  correspond  are  to  be  kept  in  close  relation  to  the 
social  needs  of  which  children  are  or  may  become 
conscious. 

While  we  believe  that  on  the  whole  Froebel  selected 
wisely  and  well,  we  do  not  stand  for  any  closed  circle 
of  materials  such  as  that  represented  by  the  Froebelian 
gifts  and  occupations  alone. 

While  we  agree  in  the  main  with  Miss  Blow  in  her 
denunciation  of  the  so-called  "Concentric  Program," 
we  cannot  accept  this  statement :  — 


284  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

"Wherever  traditional  school  aims  and  concentric 
methods  have  prevailed,  it  has  been  found  necessary 
to  eliminate  many  of  Froebel's  gifts  and  occupations, 
exclude  numbers  of  his  games,  and  discard  some  of  his 
most  characteristic  types  of  exercises.  The  result  of 
such  eliminations,  exclusions,  and  rejections  is  that 
the  kindergarten  loses  its  distinctive  merit  and  the 
Froebelian  instrumentalities  cease  to  be  an  organic 
whole  through  the  active  use  of  whose  related  elements 
the  child  organizes  his  own  thought,  feeling,  and  will."1 
Nor  do  we  believe  the  exact  mathematical  relations  in 
these  materials,  as  a  whole,  of  such  importance  that 
the  elimination  of  one  or  more  would  rob  the  child  of 
the  value  of  the  whole,  because  the  "charmed  circle" 
of  relationships  was  broken. 

A  combination  of  wisely  selected  materials  from  any 
worthy  source,  which  meets  the  different  needs  of  the 
child  at  this  stage  of  his  development,  would  be  ap- 
proved by  this  group  of  kindergartners.  For  example, 
some  of  the  Montessori  materials  seem  admirably 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  youngest  children.  When 
the  child  is  at  that  stage  of  development  where  manipu- 
lation of  materials  is  more  important  than  adaptation 
of  materials  to  embody  and  clarify  the  meanings  found 
in  social  life,  the  larger  Montessori  materials  might 
prove  more  developing  than  some  of  the  Froebelian 
gifts.  The  fact  that  their  possibilities  are  so  limited  — 
that  with  many  of  them  there  is  only  one  thing  to  be 
done  —  makes  them  fascinating  to  children  of  pre- 
kindergarten  age  and  to  the  very  youngest  children 
in  the  kindergarten.  The  one  problem  set  is  a  very 

1  Blow,  Educational  Issues  in  the  Kindergarten,  p.  9. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  285 

concrete  one,  and  the  child  can  discover  his  own  error 
without  the  aid  of  the  teacher;  but  as  children  develop 
into  the  ideational  stage,  where  materials  are  subordi- 
nated to  social  meanings  and  uses,  they  need  the  freer 
and  more  imaginative  materials  provided  by  Froebel, 
with  their  many  possibilities  and  endless  variations. 
It  would  be  an  addition  to  every  kindergarten  to  be 
equipped  with  the  stair,  swing,  and  rope  ladder  sug- 
gested by  Dr.  Montessori.  The  methods  she  suggests 
for  ^providing  freedom  in  selection  of  materials,  and 
greater  opportunity  for  the  individuality  of  children 
to  manifest  itself,  is  worthy  of  our  most  serious  study. 
There  has  undoubtedly  been  too  great  emphasis 
placed  upon  uniform  results  in  the  kindergarten,  and 
the  kindergarten  has  an  opportunity  to  learn  the 
danger  lurking  in  uniformity  from  the  study  of  this 
Montessori  method. 

A  significant  experiment  would  be  to  select  the  best 
material  from  both  Montessori  and  Froebel,  in  a  com- 
bination which  would  include  the  larger  and  more 
simple  though  limited  materials  of  Montessori  for  the 
younger  children,  with  the  freer,  more  imaginative, 
and  more  artistic  materials  of  Froebel  for  the  older 
ones. 

We  value  the  mathematical  basis  of  Froebel's 
materials  as  a  substratum  of  experience  leaving  a  sedi- 
ment of  great  value  for  later  consciousness;  but  we 
would  make  little  effort  to  bring  this  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  child  except  in  so  far  as  he  spontaneously 
reaches  out  for  it,  or  as  it  furthers  his  construction,  or 
fills  some  function  in  his  work  and  play.  As  mathe- 
matical values  are  consciously  or  unconsciously  em- 


S86  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

bodied  in  all  good  building  materials  and  constructions, 
so  the  child's  play  materials  and  constructions  must, 
if  true  to  the  requirements  of  life,  have  these  inherent 
values;  but  he  must  come  to  consciousness  of  these 
through  their  organic  relation  to  function,  or  in  so  far 
as  the  recognition  of  this  relation  enables  him  to  pro- 
duce the  form  desired.  The  correct  geometric  terms 
may  be  used  as  naturally  as  the  name  of  other  familiar 
objects  and  of  people,  and  will  in  time  be  used  by  the 
children. 

Our  emphasis  would  be  placed  on  the  building  gifts 
and  such  occupations  as  drawing,  painting,  modeling, 
crayoning,  cutting  and  folding,  weaving  with  coarse 
and  durable  materials,  and  some  sewing,  if  sufficiently 
large  and  creative.  In  fact,  all  those  gifts  and  occupa- 
tions which  point  to  the  typical  and  valuable  arts  and 
industries  would  be  selected  and  emphasized. 

We  believe  that  the  technique  of  control  should 
be  kept  in  close  relationship  to  the  thought,  idea,  or 
experience  being  realized  through  the  materials.  Due 
attention  should  be  given  to  continuity  or  the  gradual 
development  of  skill  involved  in  the  problems  met  in 
play  and  work;  but  the  logic  of  the  materials,  or  the 
grammar  of  technique  and  control  (the  old  idea  of 
sequence),  should  not  be  isolated  from  the  content 
and  meaning  involved  in  the  social  experience  being 
realized  by  the  children  in  their  constructions.  Through 
the  so-called  life  form, the  child  is  trying  to  bring  to 
consciousness  social  problems  and  meanings,  and  for 
this  reason  our  emphasis  would  fall  on  these,  though 
not  to  the  exclusion  of  the  beauty  forms.  Adequate 
opportunity  must  be  left  for  the  child's  native  interest 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  287 

in  decoration,  arrangement,  and  symmetry,  to  which 
the  beauty  forms  are  supposed  to  correspond.  These, 
however,  would  be  kept  in  close  relation  to  life  forms, 
being  used  in  the  main  to  decorate  objects  of  social  ser- 
vice, or  as  units  of  decoration  themselves  embodying 
social  meaning  or  content.  We  would  endeavor  to  pre- 
serve the  close  relation  between  art  and  social  life  so 
characteristic  of  primitive  and  child  art. 

CONVERSATION 

As  conversation  is  such  a  valuable  medium  of  ex- 
pression, we  deplore  the  tendency  of  kindergartens  to 
become  so  large  that  the  interchange  between  child 
and  children,  and  children  and  teachers,  character- 
istic of  real  conversation,  is  becoming  more  and  more 
impossible. 

As  conversation  is  not  only  a  medium  of  expression 
for  ideas,  but  a  most  important  factor  in  the  process  of 
their  formation,  therefore  it  is  most  unfortunate  for 
the  development  of  children  that  the  kindergartens 
in  our  public  schools  tend  to  offer  decreasing  oppor- 
tunities for  conversation  of  this  intimate  character. 
As  children  at  the  kindergarten  period  are  "talkers" 
rather  than  listeners,  and  as  conversation  is  a  neces- 
sity in  the  formulation  of  thought  through  linguistic 
activity,  we  urge  young  kindergartners  to  practice  the 
art  of  developing  thought  through  this  mode  for  the 
interchange  of  ideas  and  experience. 

We  also  urge  school  boards  to  reduce  the  number  of 
children  in  the  kindergartens,  so  that  conversation, 
which  corresponds  to  the  ideal  form  of  recitation  in 
higher  grades,  may  be  made  possible. 


288  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

CULTURE   AND   INDUSTRY 

We  would  plead  for  a  deeper  study  of  the  cultural 
values  in  domestic  and  industrial  activities.  In  the 
trade,  vocational,  technical,  and  industrial  education, 
so  necessary  in  a  democratic  nation  where  large  pro- 
portions of  the  citizens  must  participate  in  trade  and 
manufacture,  children  need  to  be  equipped  not  only 
with  technical  skill,  but  with  a  scientific,  aesthetic,  and 
social  vision  of  the  part  they  are  to  contribute  through 
these  avenues  to  social  welfare.  For  this  reason  in  the 
trade  and  industrial  education  of  the  higher  grades  we 
would  urge  the  accompanying  studies  of  science  and 
art.  While  working  toward  industrial  ends,  the  method 
of  experiment  must  be  preserved,  together  with  the 
spirit  of  art  and  play,  which  make  for  the  freedom  of 
the  self  and  that  joy  in  doing  which  alone  will  prevent 
the  introduction  of  the  evils  of  child  labor  into  the 
school. 

The  child  must  participate  in  the  plan,  must  be  an 
inventor  as  well  as  one  who  executes  plans  made  by 
others.  We  must  avoid  the  unfortunate  division  now 
existing  in  industiy  which  regards  those  who  plan, 
who  create  and  invent,  as  necessarily  separated  in  kind 
and  grade  from  the  "hands"  who  execute  only.  In  a 
democracy  we  must  come  more  and  more  to  Brown- 
ing's view,  "All  service  ranks  the  same  with  Godv" 

We  would  make  a  plea  for  the  ideal  interpretation  of 
the  domestic  and  industrial  activities  in  conversation 
or  in  the  songs,  games,  and  materials  in  the  kinder- 
garten. Froebel  has  set  the  example  in  his  little  play 
"The  Target,"  and  in  his  high  appreciation  of  work 
and  art. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  289 

HYGIENE 

As  the  health  of  the  child  is  of  supreme  importance 
at  the  kindergarten  period,  every  precaution  should 
be  taken  not  only  to  prevent  disease,  but  to  contrib- 
ute to  the  growth  and  general  development  of  this 
period. 

The  responsibility  of  educating  the  child  at  the 
kindergarten  age  is  borne  in  upon  us  when  we  have 
words  of  such  serious  import  as  these  from  ,pne  of  the 
great  hygiene  experts  of  our  day :  Dr.  Burnham  says, 
"The  young  child  is  specially  liable  to  infection.  No- 
thing offers  great  resistance,  neither  the  epithelial  bar- 
riers nor  the  blood  nor  the  tissues;  hence  we  should 
expect  that  germ  diseases  would  be  especially  preva- 
lent and  especially  fatal  in  the  early  years.  This  is 
precisely  what  happens.  To  quote  a  few  of  the  old 
statistics;  in  Munich,  between  the  years  1888  and 
1895,  28,988  cases  of  measles  occurred,  and  of  these 
1077  proved  fatal.  Of  cases  that  occurred  in  the  first 
year  of  life,  in  round  numbers  21  per  cent  proved 
fatal;  of  those  between  the  years  two  to  five,  5  per 
cent,  and  of  those  between  the  years  six  and  ten,  0.4 
per  cent.  That  is,  if  an  epidemic  of  measles  occurs  in 
the  kindergarten  the  chances  are  that  four  or  five  chil- 
dren in  a  hundred  cases  will  die.  If  you  can  postpone 
the  epidemic  until  the  age  of  the  primary  school,  the 
chances  are  that  only  four  out  of  a  thousand  cases  will 
die."1 

While  children  of  all  grades  have  a  right  to  the  best 
hygienic  conditions  possible  to  provide,  according  to 

1  Burnham  "Hygiene  of  the  Kindergarten,"  Proceedings  of  the 
N.  E.  A.,  1904. 


290  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

this  authority  we  are  under  peculiar  obligation  to 
procure  the  best  for  the  child  at  the  kindergarten  and 
primary  period.  Unclean  floors  with  their  dust,  pro- 
viding a  deadly  means  of  distributing  germs,  affect  the 
child  most  disastrously  at  this  age,  not  only  because 
at  this  period  of  his  development  he  comes  into  more 
frequent  contact  with  the  floor,  but  because  his  low 
stature  forces  him  to  live  hi  and  breathe  this  dust- 
laden  atmosphere.  Provided  the  floor  is  clean  and 
free  from  drafts,  the  child  doubles  the  exercise  he 
ordinarily  secures  by  working  at  the  table,  if  he  can 
do  his  work  on  the  floor.  However,  the  ordinary 
cleaning  of  the  average  kindergarten  makes  such 
use  of  the  floor  a  positive  menace  to  the  child's 
health. 

The  child's  legitimate  demands  for  opportunities  to 
run,  jump,  climb,  throw,  and  play  vigorously,  due  to 
the  development  of  the  fundamental  muscles,  would 
seem  to  be  sufficient  argument  for  school  boards  to 
provide  large  rooms  in  order  to  give  the  proper  amount 
of  exercise  and  air. 

We  would  urge  right  seating  of  the  kindergarten 
children  with  regard  to  light,  height  of  table  and  chairs; 
separate  drinking  cups,  tissue  paper  towels,  and  sani- 
tary toilet  arrangements.  The  importance  of  frequent 
medical  inspection  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized, 
especially  during  periods  of  contagion,  when  so  much 
is  at  issue. 

We  would  make  a  plea  for  the  large  materials.  The 
fact  that  "children  love  little  blocks"  and  materials 
sufficiently  small  to  throw  the  strain  upon  the  small 
muscles  of  eye  and  hand  is  no  excuse,  when  such  an 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  291 

expert  as  Dr.  Judd  gives  us  this  warning:  "One  of  the 
most  noticeable  facts  about  the  child's  diffuse  move- 
ments is  the  fact  that  these  movements  are  excessive, 
especially  the  movement  of  the  finer  muscles.  §ome- 
;  where  or  other  the  false  notion  has  entered  into  our 
pedagogy  that  the  child's  fine  muscles  do  not  develop 
until  later  than  the  large  muscles.  How  can  we  believe 
such  a  false  statement  when  we  see  a  young  infant 
clutching  with  its  little  fingers  and  exhibiting  in  this 
grip  one  of  its  strongest  movements?  How  can  one 
believe  this  dogma  when  he  sees  the  boys  and  girls 
in  the  first  grade  doing  all  the  work  that  they  do  with 
the  fine  muscles  —  literally  overdoing  this  work  in  a 
very  noticeable  degree?  The  fact  is,  the  finer  muscles 
are  in  full  operation  very  early  in  life.  Indeed,  they 
are  the  muscles  which  in  diffuse  movements  are  most 
apt  to  be  called  into  action.  It  requires  a  less  powerful 
excitation  from  the  nervous  centers  to  set  the  fine 
muscles  into  action.  They  contract  at  the  slightest 
stimulation.  These  are  the  muscles  which  always  grow 
tense  first  in  later  life  when  the  brain  becomes  over- 
excited. In  emotional  excitement,  for  example,  it  is 
the  fine  muscles  of  the  face  and  hand  that  are  first 
affected.  This  limitation  in  nature's  provision  for  free 
movement  is  the  first  point  at  which  the  teacher's  rational 
mode  of  developing  the  child  must  come  in  to  supplement 
nature's  provisions.  The  teacher  should  see  to  it  that  if 
diffusion  tends  to  emphasize  the  small  muscles,  teaching 
should  emphasize  in  due  measure  the  large  muscles.  It  is 
well  to  devise  some  other  method  of  supplementing  nature 
and  calling  the  large  muscles  into  play.  Large  arm 
exercises  are  the  most  available  devices  for  attaining 


292  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

this  end."1  One  of  the  best  qualities  of  the  Montessori 
material  is  that  some  of  them  are  large.  Dr.  Burnham, 
in  describing  the  ideal  kindergarten  of  the  future  says, 
"The  kindergarten  material  is  all  large;  fine  work  is 
not  done." 

In  so  far  as  is  possible  the  use  of  playgrounds,  parks, 
and  yards  should  be  encouraged  for  a  part  of  each 
day's  work,  or  for  thejvhole  of  it  during  certain  periods 
of  the  year.  Garden-work,  so  strongly  emphasized  by 
Froebel,  has  often  been  overlooked  by  teachers  who 
have  ample  opportunities  for  securing  it. 

Open-air  schools,  and  frequent  excursions  in  climates 
which  make  these  possible  and  advisable  should  be 
fostered  and  supported. 

More  attention  should  be  given  to  the  study  of  the 
fatigue  and  over-stimulation  heightened  by  an  unwise 
arrangement  and  alternation  of  periods  of  activity  and 
rest  in  the  time  schedule.  Children  are  frequently 
permitted  to  select  one  exciting  game  after  another, 
because  there  is  a  tradition  to  the  effect  that  the  chil- 
dren must  always  choose  their  own  games. 

METHOD   OF   CONDUCTING   TRAINING   CLASSES 

At  this  period  when  there  is  such  diversity  of  opin- 
ion regarding  the  principles  and  methods  underlying 
infant  education  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  England, 
France,  Italy,  and  America,  it  would  seem  advisable 
to  consider  the  question  of  conducting  our  training 
classes  on  the  basis  of  inquiry  and  investigation.  It 
must  be  conceded  that  it  is  an  open  question  as  to  how 
far  the  young  women  in  our  normal  classes  shall  be 

1  Judd,  Genetic  Psychology,  pp.  222-225.  (Italics  not  the  author's.) 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  293 

trained  to  consider  the  differing  viewpoints  which 
confront  them  as  practical  problems  when  they  leave 
the  training  classes. 

It  seems  advisable  to  members  of  this  group  to  pre- 
sent some  of  these  opposing  views  in  the  training  school, 
leaving  the  student  free  to  think  for  herself  and  come 
to  some  conclusions  which  possibly  may  not  agree  in 
detail  with  those  of  her  training  teacher. 

The  method  of  authority  has  been  used  to  such  an 
extent  in  the  past  that  to  agree  with  Froebel  and  with 
the  teachings  of  one's  Alma  Mater  have  been  the  test 
of  loyalty.  As  a  result,  in  many  cases  students  go  out 
from  training  classes  utterly  unprepared  for  the  de- 
cided differences  of  opinion  which  they  are  more  than 
likely  to  meet;  or,  if  they  are  prepared  in  advance  for 
this,  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that  they  have  been 
so  prejudiced  against  opposing  views,  that  their  minds 
are  closed  to  any  opportunity  to  learn  from  a  co- 
worker  or  supervisor  who  presents  a  new,  or  conflict- 
ing conception. 

The  practical  situation  with  which  students  are 
confronted  immediately  upon  graduation  would  seem 
to  warrant  an  attempt  to  develop  in  students  while 
undergoing  training  an  attitude  of  respect  toward 
difference  of  opinion,  which  would  help  them  to  meet 
gracefully  and  graciously  a  supervisor  or  co-worker 
holding  a  different  point  of  view. 

The  morality  of  inquiry,  t]je  wider  horizon  made 
possible  by  intellectual  hospitality,  would  seem  to 
leave  ample  scope  for  grounding  students  in  what  the 
training  teacher  considers  fundamental,  while  guaran- 
teeing a  freedom  from  prejudice.  This  method  gives 


294  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

principles  by  which  the  young  kindergartner  may  test 
any  new  ideas  presented.  It  frees  her  from  the  test  of 
tradition  and  mere  personal  opinion,  and  leads  to  true 
freedom  and  progress. 

Thus  the  pathway  of  the  supervisor,  the  supervised, 
and  the  co-worker  would  be  made  not  only  easier,  but 
happier,  and  the  opportunities  for  growth  and  service 
would  be  greatly  enhanced. 

PATTY  SMITH  HILL,  Chairman. 
CAROLINE  T.  HAVENS 
MABY  BOOMER  PAGE. 
JENNIE  B.  MERRILL. 
ALICE  H.  PUTNAM. 
NINA  VANDERWALKER. 

1  Deceased. 


THIRD  REPORT 

ELIZABETH  HARRISON 


I.  TYPE  OF  PROGRAM  PREFERRED 

"THE  details  of  the  program  should  be  based  on  the 
best  that  civilization  of  the  past  and  present  have  to 
bestow." 

This  would  include  the  activities  which  have  aided 
in  the  development  of  the  spiritual  life  of  man;  such 
as  his  establishment  of  the  institutions  of  the  family, 
society,  and  church;  his  mastery  over  the  material 
world  which  has  provided  him  with  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter;  his  discovery  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  their 
uniformity  of  processes  which  have  developed  science; 
and  his  creation  of  the  world  of  art  which  has  enabled 
him  to  express  his  highest  nature  in  forms  of  beauty 
as  seen  in  sculpture,  architecture,  and  paintings;  in 
dancing,  music,  and  poetry.  This  is  the  "reservoir" 
from  which  the  kindergartner  should  draw  her  supplies. 

H.  PRINCIPLES  UNDERLYING   PROGRAM- 
MAKING 

(a)  Man,  being  a  child  of  God,  has  an  infinite  nature. 
We  aim  in  education  for  the  realization  of  this  nature. 

(6)  Comprehending  man's  finite  limitations  we  re- 
cognize that  his  endowment  must  be  "  self  -creation," 
that  only  through  progressive  self-expression  can  he 
come  to  a  realization  of  himself. 

Therefore,  the  important  part  of  program-making  is 
the  recognition  of  this  by  the  teacher  and  the  making 


298  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

of  opportunities  for  the  child  in  self-expression,  or 
creative  work. 

(c)  The  discovery  of  the  law  of  human  development 
has  been  the  endeavor  of  all  thoughtful  men,  in  all 
ages,  and  in  every  advancing  stage  of  human  activity 
it  has  come  nearer  being  understood  and  made  use  of. 

The  application  of  this  law  to  education  was  first 
made  distinctly  and  definitely  to  be  applied  by  Froe- 
bel,  as  is  shown  by  his  creation  of  the  kindergarten 
gifts,  occupations,  and  games,  all  of  which  were 
planned  by  him  to  be  used  according  to  this  law. 

His  explanation  of  the  same  is  seen  in  his  pedagogical 
writings.  He  has,  also,  shown  in  the  Education  of  Man, 
how  this  same  law  of  development  may  be  applied  to 
all  stages  of  education.  This  law,  in  its  essence  or 
immediate  thought-perception,  is  shown  as  "The  Law 
of  Opposites  and  their  Connection."  In  its  pedagogical 
or  sense-perceived  process  it  is  known  as  "Evolution 
or  Sequence."  Both  of  these  processes,  the  mediate 
and  the  mediated,  should  be  given  to  the  child  as  the 
law  by  which  he  is  to  use  his  material,  for  the  reason 
that  through  them  is  first  foreshadowed  the  "Unity 
that  Lives  and  Reigns  in  All  Things,"  a  gradual  com- 
prehension of  which  is  the  aim  of  the  kindergarten. 

We  believe  in  the  kindergarten  not  alone  as  it  was 
first  evolved  and  planned  by  Frederich  Froebel,  but 
as  it  has  since  developed,  and  as  it  promises  to  develop, 
whenever  the  change  or  expansion  is  in  conformity 
with  this  law  of  development  and  not  merely  capricious 
change  or  experimental  work. 


1.  Kind  of  Child,  < 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  299 

III.  PROCESS  OF  PROGRAM-MAKING 

WITH   REFERENCE,   FIRST,   TO   THE   CHILD 

a.  Nationality. 
6.  Class. 

c.  Age. 

d.  Approximation  to  Normal. 

e.  Accidental  Handicap. 
/.  Environment. 

g.  Degree  of  Development  both 
Material  and  Social. 

All  of  these  considerations  will  necessarily  have  to 
modify  the  program  made. 

2.  The  materials  must  be  simple  enough  for  the 
child  to  master,  yet  be  difficult  enough  to  demand  an 
effort  on  his  part.    They  must  also  have  increasing 
possibilities. 

3.  There  should  be  sufficient  material  for  each  child 
to  use  individually,  and  also  in  cooperation  with  a 
group  of  children,  but  no  waste  of  materials. 

4.  Each  kind  of  material  presented  to  the  child  r' 
should  represent  a  whole  in  itself,  yet  be  related  to  a 
larger  whole. 

5.  All  exercises  must  take  the  form  of  play,  yet  con- 
tain that  which  will  stimulate  educative  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  child. 

6.  The  child's  work  must  be  an  expression  of  his  own, 
yet  he  is  best  led  to  free  self-expression  through  (1) 
experimental  or  "undirected"  use  of  the  material;  and 
(2)  through  guided  or  "directed"  use  of  it  in  order 
that  he  may  use  it  in  the  best  way  and  learn  both  its 


ZAs^ 

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(J 


SOO  THE  KINDERGARTEN 

limit  and  its  possibilities;  then  (3)  his  creative  or 
"self -directed"  use  of  it. 

7.  Incidental  materials  may  be  used,  but  should 
always  be  subordinated  to  the  higher  aim  so  as  not  to 
interrupt  the  educational  aim  of  the  program. 

8.  Each  child  must  be  regarded  in  relation  to  the 
length  of  the  periods  of  work  and  of  play,  and,  while 
not  allowed  too  great  length  to  a  period,  he  should 
have  sufficient  time  given  to  him  for  the  comprehen- 
sion and  completion  of  his  task.   Frequent  repetition 
of  one  activity  should  be  given,  and  repetition  of  one 
material,  enough  to  insure  a  mastery  of  materials  and 
an  understanding  of  the  principles  or  process  involved. 

tJiht+AJf    [  ) 
WITH   REFERENCE,    SECOND,    TO   THE   TEACHER 

The  teacher  should  know  the  ideals  of  human  insti- 
tutions, as  upon  them  is  based  all  ethical  advancement 
of  the  human  race. 

She  should  have  gained  the  insight  given  in  Froebel's 
Mother  Play  book,  in  order  that  she  may  understand 
Froebel's  educational  aim. 

\    She  should  know  why  Froebel  altered  the  folk- 
games  when  he  made  the  kindergarten  games. 

She  should  understand  the  typical  process  and  form 
of  the  organization  of  the  work  which  Froebel  has 
given  to  the  child  in  the  gift  and  occupation,  in  order 
that  she  may  use  new  materials  in  the  same  way. 

She  should  comprehend  that  what  she  brings  to  the 
child  is  important,  as  this  awakens  and  guides  his 
power  so  that  he  will  relate  himself  aright  to  humanity 
and  to  nature. 

She  should  realize  that  the  material  selected  by 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  301 

Froebel  and  the  use  of  the  same  frees  the  child  in  such 
a  way  that  he  may  use  his  creative  power  as  it  is  based 
on  the  recorded  development  of  the  race,  not  on 
capricious  choice. 

She  should  learn  to  distinguish  between  the  use  of 
the  material  which  helps  and  that  which  hinders  the 
child  in  the  mastery  of  nature  and  self-expression. 

She  should  have  sufficient  understanding  of  the 
various  forms  of  art  to  appreciate  what  is  art  in  the 
child's  work,  and  what  part  it  plays  in  his  development. 

She  should  have  such  a  knowledge  of  literature  as 
will  enable  her  to  distinguish  between  temporary  and 
permanent  values  of  the  same  in  her  use  of  it  in  the 
kindergarten,  in  stories,  poems,  and  songs. 

She  should  be  interested  in  the  general  welfare  of 
the  educational  institution  with  which  the  kindergarten 
is  connected  and  respect  its  laws. 

She  should  be  able  to  see  the  child's  standpoint. 

She  should  understand  the  nature  of  play  and  its 
purpose  in  kindergarten,  and  should  know  how  to 
play. 

She  should  have  a  time  schedule  for  regular  work, 
in  order  that  time  may  be  well  used  and  changes  be 
rightly  calculated,  but  this  time  schedule  should  not 
be  inflexible  if  the  needs  of  her  children  demand  a 
change  or  variation. 

ELIZABETH  HARRISON. 
MARIA  KRAUs-BoELTE.1 
LUCY  WHEELOCK. 

„ 

1  I  endorse  Miss  Harrison's  report  as  truly  Froebelian  and  pro- 
gressive, particularly  in  what  is  said  of  the  schedule,  to  which  I 
especially  agree. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 
EDUCATION  AND  PSYCHOLOGY  LIBRARY 

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